The Flint Legacy
by SweetBrownie
Summary: Life goes on after the whole ordeal of treasure planet. Jim goes to the interstellar acadamy, gets a new friends and sees on as her mother builds up the Benbow Inn. But suddenly there is a surprise guest at the doorstep, and a entirely new adventure begins. (Rated T)
1. Chapter 1: All Happy Things

**Hello, all. Here is the sequal that I published a while ago, but took down. I have written a few more chapters on it, and is currently in the end of the entire story. The final, so to speak. I know that I maybe never shoulf have taken it down, so here it is again.**

* * *

One week after RLS Legacy's return

The room is nearly black when the man enters, but for a small candle on a table. The man is that of a smaller body size, even for a man that is well beyond his forties. His shining years is behind him, as it is visible by his ragged face that the world have not been kind to him.

His face is faced much like a triangle, his skin full of scales and a pair of visible fangs sticks out from his thin mouth. He looks much like a snake on a humanoid body, with a long neck that sprouts two arms and two legs. He is thin as one, too. The clothes he wears are plain: a blue gray coat, with a black shirt and grey pants underneath.

The man fidgets a bit as he looks to the chair that are turned against him, the darkness conceals most of the details of it as well as the figure that sits in it. "What is it, Kinsley?" the man sitting in the chair asks. "You have the news I wanted?"

"Y-y-yes," the newly arrived man, Kinsley, sputters afraid. "The treasure planet is… is…" After that he gets quiet, as he dares not to end the sentence.

"Yes, the treasure planet is…?" encourages the sitting man.

After a long hesitation a conclusion comes. "…gone." Kinsley feels terribly small, as he fears the rage he know that is to come. The man in the shadow have killed in the cruelest of ways in cold blood, and Kinsley proves what he dreads this with his quiet, shaky tone.

There is another pause, but anyone can sense the cold gather. If you can figure sensing the grim reaper enter the room, this would be it. "Treasure planet is… gone?" The sitting man's voice is just as cold, the tone unforgiving and cruel.

"It is on everyone's lips," Kinsley speaks. "Of one lonely ship that escapes a big explosion out of thin air." He doesn't dare to say any more of it, but yet he figures that the other man knows that it is right.

"How could that have happened?" the unknown man asks, more to himself than anything. "If not for the map no one can find-"

The man interrupts himself, and he suddenly jerks up from the chair like his whole body have been hit with a bolt of electricity. The darkness is still concealing him even after this action. "Silver," comes a hiss, the name is spoken like a curse from the man's lips. "It is him. Got to be." His mood have turned into rage, an unforgiving thunder.

"Silver?" Kinsley pipes. "You sure?"

"Sure? I'm certain." It is now that the unknown man turns to finally face Kinsley. "He have been out after that map for the bigger part of his life." Light hits the concealed man's face, and reveals his identity in the process. "That map are mine by right. It was my forefather who built the treasure planet and littered it with the trove from thousands of worlds."

The face that comes into the light have a striking resemblance of that of Nathaniel Flint, one of the many great pirate legends. With six deadly eyes he locks Kinsley right where he stands, and on his skull shaped face is a highly unpleased grimace. As the man's body comes into full light more is to say of his looks.

This man before Kinsley is in his thirties. He is slightly bulkier from that of Nathanial Flint, with a few of his visible front teeth missing and his hair of a slightly darker shade of brown. What he wears is a uniform of unpleasable origin, with the dominating colors of dark brown and stormy grey. There is a hint of red and yellow in the form of the buttons in his coat and the smaller details in his hat, but otherwise there is just the brown and the gray.

"If not for that scoundrel and thief Billy Bones I would have been among mountains of gold and jewels by now," the newly revealed man continues. "I so hope that Silver have killed Bones when that damn cyborg went after Bone's life boat. But if he's not I will make certain that Bones wishes he is long dead. For Silver I am glad that I at least took some of his limbs when I did."

"S-so what are your orders, captain?" sputters Kinsley.

With his back straight, the man approaches Kinsley with long, strong strides. He puts his hand on the snake's shoulder, and bares all his teeth in an ill, dry amusement as well as revealing a red gleam in his eyes. It is with a mad voice the man speaks again.

"Now, my dear lieutenant, I think it is high time to remind dear, old Long John Silver that Maddox Flint is still alive and well… and that he owes me a trove from a thousand worlds."

* * *

2 month after RLS Legacy's return

The inn is on the way to be rebuilt, with workers and constructers already done with the foundation and the framework for the whole house. It will even be a bit bigger than it was before, even with some rooms on the second lever for any visitors that like to rent a room for a few nights. There will be a garden that people can sit and eat food in the outside air on one side of the house, something Sarah always have wanted. Sarah herself is always there every day during the construction, to oversee the work and to come with any wishes or changes to the captain of the working force.

Right now, however, she is doing something completely else: saying her last goodbyes to her only child, the son she loves so, before Amelia will take him to his first year on the Interstellar Academy. It is there, in the barracks of the academy, that he will live during his studies for the whole year, and will not return until the end of the second term. So she will miss him very much.

"Now, be careful with any shifty characters that you might meet," Sarah frets. "Oh, let me look at your hair, it is a mess."

Captain Amelia straightens her shirt with stiff movements before her hands goes to rest behind her back as she observes Jim Hawkins gets his hair fixed by his caring, if not a little too worried, mother. Behind Amelia stands one officer from her new crew, a young man with a straight back and lean build. All the four of them are gathered on the pier next to Benbow Inn, as a ship waits for them at the end of the gangly dock. That small treasure that Silver have given Jim have been just enough to rebuild the house with all of its improvements, so nothing have been done to the pier. That have also been the only thing left standing since the fire.

"Don't stay up too late, even on the weekends – wait, what have you with your collar, Jim, it is all uneven!" Another second goes where Sarah fiddles with the collar on her son's jacket, a detail that she never really have minded before until now, oblivious on how uncomfortable she makes him. "I swear that I already have fixed your collar at least five times." Even Morph makes a restless sound from the teen's shoulder, as he too wants to get going to this new, fascination place called the interstellar academy, with surely a lot new things to morph into and mimic.

Jim knows why she fuss so much now when he just is on his way of. She wants him to stay as long as she can, as she will not see him for several months when he is off to study his first year on the interstellar academy. She have already lived without him for one and a half month during the hunt for the treasure planet, and she have never missed him more. He, however, don't have the heart to stop her.

"Listen carefully to everything the teachers tells you, and be polite," she continues. "Eat your vegetables every day, and brush your teeth's thoroughly. Don't you go off on your small adventures, and no breaking the rules. And don't you dare drink a single drop of rum!"

"Mom," Jim smiles, and takes her hands in his so that she listens to him… but mostly so that she would stop with her worried fiddling. "I promise, I will take care of myself. And I will send you letters every week, to tell you everything I do and learn. But then you have to do something for me, something you have to promise me."

Sarah smiles back. "And what might that be?"

"To stop worry about me. Mom, I'll be fine."

"I'll be fine," Morph copies his voice with a high pitch to it, and tries to hurry the process along the way. "Fine, fine, fine." Neither mother nor son pays him any attention, which only makes the pink blob even more anxious to get going.

Jim's mother observes him as her smiles turns particularly warm. She brings her hands up to cup his cheeks. "I sure hope so." And with that she plants a soft kiss on his forehead. Thereafter they hug each other closely, as they both know that they will not see each other for a bigger part of a year.

"I will hold you to those letters," Sarah says as they break of. "Remember; write me _every_ week. If one of those letters fails to come, even by one single day, I will come to see you myself."

Jim gives a small laugh when a small idea pops into his head. "I promise to write, but how would you know that the postman won't have a bad day?"

"Then I find that postman and gives him a scolding he is not soon to forget," she promise as she fingers some small crease only a mother that tries to pull out the inevitable can see. "And then I scold some more to be on the safe side."

That only makes him laugh a bit more. "To have a bad day?"

"No excuse to not deliver my mail on time."

Not soon after Jim boards the longboat with Morph on his shoulder and together with Amelia and the officer by her side as well. The boat takes to the air, as Jim and Sarah wave goodbye to each other. And so, Jim's first year at the Interstellar Academy begins.

* * *

2 1/2 months after RLS Legacy's return

It have gone just a little more than a week since the schoolyear have started, and all goes well. The first introductions to everyone and the new premises have just been finished, but although Jim have surely met everyone he can far from say that he remembers them all. There is 15 teachers and more than 350 other students.

As for now, Jim is sitting in the school cafeteria and eats his lunch. Morph is off somewhere, still exploring the new environment. The boy have made the blob to come back before the lunch is over, which is in about 15 minutes now. There are already groups forming among the other students just after the first week, who all sits in different clusters at the tables.

Jim is unsure which one he should check out, he don't really want to spend the years in the academy alone, but there are so many to choose from. And to say the truth, he is a bit nervous to meet and mingle with all these new people. Since his father left he have been a bit secluded, even to all the visitors that have come to his mother's inn during the years. It is therefore with uncertain eyes he plays with his food in front of him, as he keeps his face low over the table and keeps to his own for now.

"So…," a voice suddenly says not that far away from him, and Jim turns to face whoever it belongs to. It is a human boy, somewhere in the same age as Jim himself if not a few years older, with light-yellow hair that falls backwards in a wave behind his back. He have dark blue eyes, an easygoing grin on his lips and have a few, gold colored hairs that is the beginning to a beard on his chin. "What's your story?" the boy asks, as a curious glimmer comes to his eyes.

"Nothing special," Jim answers, as he goes back to his food. Jim is not too keen to trust someone too quickly; the last person he have gotten to be friends with turned to be a pirate after all.

Without any invitation at all this new boy takes a seat beside him, and observes Jim closely. Honestly Jim starts to feel a bit uncomfortable, as to the amount of interest the newcomer gives him. "Nothing special?" the light-haired boy asks. "Nothing special like, you don't like to talk about it? Or nothing special like, it is seriously _nothing_ special about it?"

"What is it for you?" Jim asks, uncertain.

"Yeah, maybe I am a bit too forward," the boy agrees with a smile and extend an open hand. "Jeremy D. Walkup at your service. Or unservice, whichever you prefer. But you can call me Jerry."

"James Pleiades Hawkins, but everyone calls me Jim," Jim greets and takes Jerry's hand. "What does the D stand for?"

"Davidson."

"Davidson?" A small laugh escapes Jim, something he tries to suppress but fails. "So you basically have two last names?"

"Laugh all you want," Jerry chuckles himself as he gives the hand a small shake before he lets go. "It brings double the fame once I'm a captain over my own ship."

"You are not that shy, I see," Jim observes, the initial tension losing up a bit.

"Yeah, that is what my mother always says. Both she and I wonder why I don't have more friends."

"I suspect you are coming on too strong, they get uncomfortable."

"You are probably right. Hey, you who seem to know these things, you might want to help me. You see those girls over there?" Jerry points discreetly over to a group of girls not that far away. "Care to help me get a date?"

Jim laughs a little harder, as he can't believe this guy. "You need all the help you can get." He barely needs to eye the girls to see that.

"Is that a yes, then?"

That have not been what Jim have meant at all, and his smile drops. "Wait, no, no, no! I didn't agree to _that_."

"I believe you did," Jerry says and puts an arm around Jim. "Now, tell me, how am I to begin when I walk up to a girl? Do I make a joke, or what?"

"You can't be serious."

A mischievous grin comes over Jerry, something Jim don't really catch as he looks at the girls with a rising heat in his cheeks of embarrassment. He is not that good with girls. He might not have interacted with them much, but isn't that proof enough? "So jokes it is, then! What comes after that?"

"You are asking the wrong guy here!" This is when Jerry starts to laugh at Jim's predicament, and therefor lets the brown-haired boy know that it have all been Jerry's way to pull Jim's leg. The younger of the boy's glares at him. "You utter idiot," Jim frowns, but then can't stop the chuckles of his own. _That was pretty funny._

Jerry removes his arm from around Jim's neck, just as Jim realizes that the tension he have been feeling against this new face is gone. _This guy might just be cool, after all_.

"Sooo, what's your story again?" Jerry asks.

"Well...," Jim says, still uncertain if he should tell his new friend.

"Hey, if you are as boring as you sound and don't know how to talk to girls, don't let me say otherwise." Jerry is clearly coaxing Jim to answer, and when the older man gets an amused glare Jerry knows that he have succeeded.

"For your information, I have done something I know for certain that you find interesting," Jim starts. That gets Jerry's eyebrows go up a few inches in encouragement, and just like that the lonely boy from Montressor have gotten another friend. As Jim tells the tale of treasure planet he can't help to be glad that he now have four friends out in the world other than B.E.N, Morph and Silver.

* * *

5 month after RLS Legacy's return

"That shifty, double-crossing cyborg!" Maddox Flint screams. His fist that accompanies the curse hits hard onto the wood of the tabletop. "All our hunts dodged. All our traps evaded. I planned him to be bleeding and beaten like a pulp on my ship's floor, maybe even DEAD, by this point."

"We are trying our best, captain," Kinsley ensures, with some of the crew behind him to back him up in his claim. All of them shakes a little from fright at the captain's growing anger, but they tries hard not to show their fear. "But whatever we do Silver seems to be one step before us."

Flint's eyes thins dangerously at that, his anger flaring so much that his eyes seems for a moment like two intense infernos. "And how, _Mr._ Kinsley, do you suspect he do that? Why is he able to stay away from us? To always have at least one hour heads up before my men are coming for him?"

Kinsley have no answer, and that is what the lieutenant tells his captain. Neither does any of the crewmembers behind Kinsley have any answer to give. A quiet murmur breaks out as the crewmen look each other up, checking if any of the others are to come with any suggestion to solve this mystery.

Maddox glares at them while they keep discussing among themselves, not believing that he is in charge of such a useless lot. Then he starts to think, to really _think_ , and a suspicious look creeps into his face. He observes the others with growing mistrust, the people before him not noticing while they throw reasons and theories at each other before Flint's eyes in the end lands solemnly at Kinsley.

His lieutenant, that is the only one that knows all of his plans, the one that puts his orders into motion, which is the only single other person that knows anything beforehand.

While Kinsley have his back turned to the others Maddox slowly takes of his gun from the holster at his belt. Silently he cocked it ready and aims. In cold blood and in no thought of proving if his suspicion is right he press the trigger. The shot sends the group into silence, all of their eyes starring either at Kinsley or Flint. The second later the lieutenant falls, a smoking hole embedded deep in his back. With lifeless eyes Kinsley takes his last breath.

Flint looks down at the body as he puts the gun back into the holster, the corner of his mouth sloping in a disapproving scowl. "Problem solved," he growls.

* * *

7 months after RLS Legacy's return

In a dark alley, somewhere far away from the safety of justice and law that most honest people knows, a man with a cybernetic foot stomps unevenly down the street. It is late in the darker hours of the evening, and this cyborg is on his way back to his hiding spot after a day of gathering up both information and necessities, so both his backpack and his mind is full.

The buildings he passes are all closed up, but even so a few of the windows are lit up and provides a little light for John's path. John can imagine however that on the other side of those windows there is not some snug little family in the late bed hours, but he knows better. This is not a good neighborhood at all, and therefor it is with the most likelihood every tenth of those lights a meeting between thieves, robbers or other people of similar profession that sits in there and plots their next hold-up.

Silver hastens his pace, and is thankful that there is not a long way to go. But suddenly there is a loud voice, accompanied with a flash of light in the distance. Silver jerks, and turns to the explosion in horror. He didn't think that Maddox would be so close already.

So with that he turns down the street towards the direction he have been heading, and starts to jog with great effort from his metallic leg. He comes to his holdout in record time, as he bolts right thru the doors with such a force that he almost destroys their hinges. He don't take too long to pack everything he owns in one small backpack, all the while he gives out low mutters on how dark his hideout is. But there is no time to light a lantern, as he can't waste one single second.

"Damn Kinsley for not giving me any warning these last months," he mutters as he collects the last of his possessions.

Another explosion goes off not that far away just when he takes hold of his last belonging, maybe even in the same block where Silver is right now. He throws the object into his backpack and puts it roughly on his back when he gets out again.

"Silver!" the voice of Maddox screams somewhere. It sends a chill wave thru John's body as unpleasant memories resurface after such a long time of slumber, but he don't stop his stride. "Where are you, Silver?!"

He is lucky that he is able to escape that night, but it is not the last night where he evades Maddox Flint by a hair. But it is the first real close one, and the one that leads Silver to believe that Kinsley just might be dead.

* * *

10 months after RLS Legacy's return

"Come on, Jim, we must make the most of it," Jerry whispers.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jim whispers back.

It is late in the night, and the two friends are out of their rooms. They are on their way to the roof of the barracks for the students. Jerry have in his jacket pockets a pair of beers that he have successfully smuggles into his possession, and they are om their way to the roof to watch the view as they enjoy this rare treat. After them flies Morph and makes small mumbling sounds of interested of where the boys are going to, even though Jim have begged it time and time again to keep it down.

"Please, Morph, you will get us caught," Jim finally says and is able to fetch the pink blob out of the air with one hand. It successfully keeps Morph quiet the rest of the way.

Jerry takes the lead and Jim brings up the rear, as they work their way up the dark staircase in the otherwise sleeping house. They are careful with listening to all the sounds there is and watch out in every corner so that they don't get taken on the bed by the night guard or a teacher on a nightly walk.

They don't meet anyone all the way up, and even luckier is that the last door up to the roof, the one supposed to be locked, have been overlooked and not bolted shut as it should.

"Well, here we are," Jerry says as he walks to the edge of the roof. He picks out the beers from his pockets and takes a seat on the roof. He lets his legs hang out over the edge, and the gentle breeze tugs a bit in his hair and clothes. Morph finds the wind too cold to his liking, and therefor flies inside Jim's pocket for the warmth.

Jim don't really braves out to the edge, but takes a seat a bit from the drop. He guess that his fright of heights are still with him, and always will, even how manageable it gets. "That they didn't have someone look at that door seems a bit odd," he agrees. "Someone might just get in thru there from the outside."

"Someone can definitely do that now," Jerry comments and nods at the completely open door and the busted lock. Both of them laughs a bit at that before the older of them starts to speak again. "I bet we need to tell someone about that."

"And how it got open in the first place?" Jim asks, his tone going up a bit more than necessary to ask if they should tell the whole story just by the voice.

"Ok, maybe not that part," Jerry smiles and holds out one of the beers. "Here."

Jim takes it and opens it, thankful that it is a beverage with just a low percentage. He don't want to repeat the last time he got alcohol into his system. Jerry opens his, too.

"Cheers," the fair-haired boy says, and they brings the cans together. "A perfect way to end the first year of academy, don't you think?"

They take their first sips at the beer. Jim frowns a bit at the taste, as he finds it quite bitter for his liking. He likes sweet tastes more, like orange juice. Jerry seems to like the taste of the beer, though. Then they look out at the view before them as they now and then takes more of the beer in small sips. Once Morph tries the beer out, too, and takes a small taste right out of the can. It instantly finds it disgusting and retreats without further ado back into Jim's pocket.

A few lights shines with dim beams on the main building of the academy, a building with old architecture and classic decoration to it. The round cup at the top looks alien from how it looks at daytime, with the darkness of the night above it and with the beams from below. Faint stars shines in the sky, blinking at them from far, far away.

"So...," Jerry begins. "Is it back to your mother's inn now for the summer?"

"Yep. Home to old Benbow Inn. Or new, depending how you look at it. I will probably help take care of the business for the whole summer."

"If only I was so lucky. Me and my dad are to take a camping trip for most of the leave. Dad have planned the whole thing, of course." Here Jerry rolls his eyes at his father's ludicrous plans, and Jim snorts. "You should have heard him last night, going on and on about it. What we are going to do every day, how nice it will be to get out of his office and how good it will feel to have a break from the classes."

As Jim have learned during the year, Jerry's father is one of the teachers at the academy. A Mr. Seymour Walkup, teacher in galactic mapping and navigation by stars. The Walkups lives near the academy in a smaller house together with another small family, a mother and her two small kids that are currently 3 and 5 years.

"You will at least not be stuck somewhere crowded with constantly new faces and serve drinks," compares Jim.

"I tell you, I'll take anything, only if I can skip the whole trouble to share a tent with the old man." Jerry leans in a bit towards. "He farts in his sleep," the older boy whispers. "Like, a lot."

Jim chuckles at that as Jerry leans back. "Okay," the younger agrees. "Maybe I'm the luckier of us two."

"You definitely are," Jerry says just as he takes a big swing of the beer. Then he abruptly takes his legs under him and stands up, as the can hangs loose from his hand. "Wait here, I'll go get something." He leaves Jim to sit there alone and look after him. It don't take long before Jerry comes back with two big objects under his one arm that Jim recognize all too well.

"Solar surfers?" Jim asks, his big surprise showing a long way.

"Yeah, a small surprise of mine. I was thinking that we can share a flight now, and have a bit of fun before the torture starts back home."

Jim puts away his beer and stands to closer inspect the boards. It is then he sees that it is two of the academy's, as they use on different classes outdoors. "Where did you get a hold of those?"

The older man puts one end of the surfers down on the roof they are standing on and lets the objects lean up on him with one arm around them to keep them there as he scratch his neck with his free hand. "Heh... I've 'borrowed' them." A smile is on his lips, which is just a tad nervous. Jim suspects it is not because Jerry mines about whatever trouble he might get into, but rather how much Jim will care.

The younger boy knows very well that borrowed is not the right word. "Seriously!?" Jim chuckles. "You stole them?"

"Hey, now, it is not stealing if you intend to give them back within the night, as good as new," the older of them excuses and holds his hands in front of him.

"Yes, it is. Especially if you haven't asked first."

"You want to do this or not?" Jerry asks and feigns to get a bit offended. "Or else I have dragged them up here for nothing."

"How did you get them up here in the first place?" Jim asks a bit confused. "The door up here were lock-" He interrupts himself as he remembers that the door haven't been locked that well when they got up here. He puts two and two together, and he stares at Jerry who only smiles back innocently. "Oooh, you will get in sooo much trouble."

"Not if they never finds out," Jerry smiles and hands over one of the boards. "Come on, let's take a quick ride around the area. We will be back in bed before anyone notices. It will just be some harmless fun."

It sounds like a wonderful idea in Jim's ears, the promise to her mother before he left all but forgotten at the moment. He have focused the whole year on schoolwork, and his whole being is now itching to feel the freedom on a solar surfer. So it is with happiness he takes the offered solar surfer, folds the small sail up and puts the board in the right position by the edge of the roof before he stands on it. Jerry does the same beside him.

Jim glances down at the ground below, meters and meters down to the safety of solid floor. He gulps a bit, but let's not the fear take control. He have once loved to fly around in the sky, to do tricks and take risks, and he still wants to love it and experience it now. So he looks right ahead, on the big cup that is the roof of the academy's main building, and concentrates. Morph pokes out of the pocket a bit, and makes a worried sound. Jim pets it slightly to calm it down, and the action proves effective on them both.

"Race you around the main building and back?" Jerry proposes, before he takes off with no warning.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Jim calls after him, and sends the surfer roaring to a start before he is off right after his friend. A small shriek comes out of Morph, who have not been ready at all.

One hour later they both are sitting inside the headmaster's office, with the headmaster himself in his dressing-gown and in a sour mood to have been woken to finds the two boys breaking the academy's laws and violation. Jim and Jerry gets a few weeks detention for this, and several other liberties was taken from them during this time such as no more use of the surfers. But both of them agrees that it was worth it.

When it comes to the promise to his mother, of not going on those adventures of his and break laws, Jim guess that he can keep quiet about it in his letters home until he gets back to the inn for the summer. Although he can't help himself to just give a few notions here and there that he _might_ have done something that he shouldn't have.

* * *

11 months after RLS Legacy's return

The Benbow Inn steams with life, happiness and joy. A happy tone is played by old lady Dunwoody, with no sign of growing tired in her arms from all the playing. Jim finds it a wonder that the old woman can go on playing like she does for two hours when she is in her senior years. He himself is exhausted from all the dancing and mingling.

It feels good to be home after so many months in the academy. It have been ten months of studying, and it is first today that he gets his first leisure of one week back at the inn, to see how the newly built house looks like and to see all old faces again. His mother seems more happy and carefree, a big uplift from her worrying mood before the adventure to treasure planet. Amelia and Doppler have gotten married and have now four kids. The newly made parents are in high spirits, taking the troubles with the young with smiles.

And Jim himself is more hopeful than ever for what the future have to give him. He have now meaning in his life, he sees a future amongst the stars over his head. He learns new, useful things in the academy every day, and he have gotten new friends over there that he likes. But there is one single thing that he feels is missing in his life.

He looks out the window from where he stands in his new, white uniform. He slowly stops clapping his hands in time with Dunwoody's tune, to let them then fall down. The music and the laughter from the crowd is pushed back into the background as he observes the dark sky up above, seeing that there are just a few clouds on the otherwise star filled blackness above. And in one of those clouds he believes himself to see a face he recognize.

Jim smiles slightly as he sighs, as he wish that John Silver will one day come back.


	2. Chapter 2: The Shadow Of The Boogyman

Jim scrubs at a particular spot on a plate, one out of a whole mountain of plates in different sizes, all of which is one of the by-products of the party that his mother have thrown the night before to celebrate his first year of studies is done. Jim have a feeling that she also thinks that the party is well deserved for herself as well, as now she is certain that her 'little man' is on a better and more opportunistic path. No more do she need to worry as much for him, just because now he have a future set by himself.

The dirty patch on the plate is resilient in it's try to remain on the porcelain, but in the end Jim is able to have it cleaned. He quickly washes it off and puts the plate on the one single other clean plate there is surely the only clean one in the entire inn, the beginning of a white pillar that surely will to go over his head before he takes the next dirty plate. Morph is currently sitting on his head in the form of a white peaked cap, much like those that works in small kiosks.

"You can't believe everything that have happen while you have been away, Jim," Sarah tells him from her half of the kitchen, where she prepares some ingredients that is needed for today's lunch. "As you can guess Delbert and Amelia have married - oh, her dress was just fabulous! Mesmerizing, really! You should have seen it! - and then they have given birth to those four sweethearts of theirs - Gwendelyn, Annabell, Danielle and Marshall."

Jim washes the plate off and puts it on the growing, but yet low for the moment, pillar before he takes another dirty plate. There is no stop in her speech, and she have been talking the whole morning. Jim is a bit worried, as she seems talking so much that she might forget to breath. But as long as her face don't turn blue he guess that there is no danger. It gets, however, a bit tiring to constantly listen to it, and even to take note of everything she says.

"Why couldn't you have taken some time off from the studies to come to their wedding, Jim?" she asks. "The two of them got very disappointed."

"I had a big test that week, mum, I told you that in my letters," he answers with a sigh, as this is a subject that Sarah seems to not want to let go. "Six months, and you will not stop bringing it up." Another plate is washed off to be put aside, and Jim starts to work on a new one.

"It was just such a wonderful event," she smiles. "It is not every day someone gets married."

 _Lucky that,_ Jim is not late to comment in his mind with a roll of his eyes. He has his back towards his mother he is glad that she don't see it, as it surely saved him from a few minutes berating.

Sarah's smile disappears and in it's place comes a sad look. "I hope it goes better than my marriage..." she says with a low voice, almost a whisper. A sorry tone is prominent in her voice.

This cause Jim to halt for just a second before he drops what he holds and turns to Sarah. "Mom," he begins and approach her to give her a hug. "You know I love you, right? Please, don't be sad about that." Morph transforms into its natural pink form and goes to join the hug with a sad sound.

"I can't really help it, dear," she murmurs and hugs back. "I love you, too. Really much." Here she hugs even closer before she pulls away to look an her son's face, with her hands on his cheeks with such a tender warmth only a mother can show to her child. "And I am so, so proud of you." They stand there like that for a moment before they break of. "So, might I hear what kind of grades you have gotten in your first year?"

Jim shrugs as he goes back to his work. Morph flies to his side and observes the work he is doing. "Meh, nothing special," he says. In reality he have gotten very good grades in both engineering and physics, while the rests of his grades are mediocre at best. He likes to surprise her with it once he have taken graduation in a few years' time.

They keep on working the whole morning with cleaning up from the party the day before, and soon after weary spacefaring travelers starts to drop in and sit at the tables in the dining room to order food. The visitors from the inn's guestrooms starts to come down the stairs from the floor above and gets into the dining room, too.

Morph helps where he can, mainly by entertaining the younger visitors by different games which involves it's ability to mimic things. Everything goes along as it have always been, where Jim takes orders, do the dishes and helps where he can. And all the while he can't escape but notice his mother's happiness to have him back, if it only is for a limited time.

"I'm sorry, Jim, but I'm just so happy to have you home again," Sarah excuses herself after surely the fiftieth hug of the day. It is not that soon after lunch, and Jim wonders if he needs to get another fifty hugs from his mother before dinner. "It have not been the same without you."

Jim have grown tired of all the hugs from his mother only rolls his eyes. It have been the same excuses the last thirty times, he can even mime with her lips and make anyone believe that Sarah's voice comes from him. Not that he is this time... there is no-one else in the room to entertain. The strength of her arms seems to only grow with every hug, so much so that the phrase 'hug me closer and I turn into a rubber duck' have been on his lips several time. He have the tack to leave it unsaid, though.

"Don't mention it, mum," he tells instead. "I have missed you, too."

"So, from your letters I take it that everything goes well in school?" his mother inquires as she starts to take off the dirty dishes from a table. Jim follows suit with the next table.

"Yeah, pretty good," Jim shrugs. "I study hard, I have a lot of new friends - oh!" With the mention of friends he remembers the farce one of them have dragged him into. His mood gets a bit gloomy just to remember it, but only for a small moment. "Besides, I have not broken a _single_ law."

 _Just according to the letters,_ Sarah remembers as she takes her pile of plates, silverware and glasses to the kitchen. Maybe that feeling of that he have holding back something back she have gotten from some of the letters have been just that, a feeling, and nothing true. "That's good," she smiles.

Out of her view Jim gets a sheepish smile on his lips as he follows his mother into the kitchen with his armful of dirty dishes. "...I have broken at least a _dozen_ laws..."

Sarah need to make a double-take just when she puts down the dishes in the empty kitchen-sink. "What?" Just at that moment Morph appears, as it finds that it have played enough with children, and halts when he sees that a small dispute is evolving between Sarah and Jim.

Jim's smile grows just a little, as a small chuckle escapes him as he puts his load on the sink next to his mother. "...at least none of them have been the important ones..."

She puts her hands on her hips and turns to fully face her son with a disappointed frown on her face. "Jim!"

With the smile still in his face, Jim only shrugs once again. "It was just some harmless fun," he tries to wave away, just like Jerry have said it. At the mention of fun, however, Morph gets a mischievous grin out of the boy's line of sight.

"Harmless or not, I told you specifically before you left not to do it."

"And I didn't do it," he quickly swears. Maybe a bit too quickly, as he adds two more words just a second later a bit more hesitantly. "...on purpose."

Now Morph comes to his side, and with a high-pitched precision that is almost spooky it repeats a few lines that Jim have told it only a month before. "Please, Morph, you will get us caught."

"Morph!" the boy exclaims and fetches the pink blob with both hands, but it is too late. Sarah have heard it.

"Aha!" she says in triumph. "And you said it wasn't on purpose."

"Oh, come on, mum," Jim groans and lets Morph go. "Me and a friend of mine just wanted to relax a bit before summer, so we borrowed some solar surfers and had a go with them. We didn't do anything wrong." As Jim grows quiet Sarah sighs, puts a hand on her forehead and observes with tired eyes at her son. A small second goes by, and Jim starts to feel a bit guilty over the whole thing. _But still, it was just a bit of harmless fun._

"What am I to do with you?" she asks.

Jim shrugs, as he don't know what more to say.

* * *

"They are cute, aren't they?" asks Sarah at the sight of the four sleeping babies.

"They sure are," Delbert agrees with a warm smile. Then he leans closer to Mrs. Hawkins to add the next words in a joking manner and with a fitting scowled-up-but-yet-kidding face. "Only wait until they find something to cry about."

She gives a small laugh at that, as she understands exactly what he means. When Jim have been this age she have thought that he was a handful at times. And to add it all with four? Must be a total nightmare once they starts to cry all at once, but what are parents not willing to do for their children.

"I never really saw myself as one to create a family," Amelia confess from where she sits at one of the serving tables, grateful for the temporary calm and that she can just sit to enjoy a smoking hot cup of tea. "However, whenever I saw a child I thought it must be an easy task. How wrong I was. _The_ most demanding and tiring objective I could have settled on."

"But not that it is anything wrong with it, right?" Sarah grins, as she drinks the sight in of the still little angels. "Children are..." It takes a small moment, when she searches for the right words. "Everything," she then settles on. Both Amelia and Delbert nods in agreement to that. "Everything and more." She plays carefully, oh so carefully, with one of the locks of hair on one of the girls, Annabell.

She gets reminded far too much when Jim have been this age. How easy it was to amuse him and to make him smile. And those times when the two of them just slumber on the sofa, with the small bundle that was Jim on her chest, was surely the most blessed moments in her life. "They are the future," Sarah concludes.

Delbert and Amelia shares an amused look. "Sounds like Sarah here is in love," Delbert observes. "You like us to leave the children in your good care?"

"Oh, no," she protests and puts her hands up in her defense. Even how much she adores small and cute babies she is not ready to care for another four, or even one, in her life. "Sorry to break it to you, you guys, but they are your kids. I have an inn to take care of."

"I'm sure you do," Amelia smiles, before she stands up. She gets to struggle a bit to get on her feet, as her joins have are a bit stale; all the work to get her four children go sleep yesterday night. Even after all the festivities the kids have seemed set to not go to bed. "I must thank you for letting us stay here tonight, but I think that we need to get going home now."

"Are you sure?" Sarah asks. "You who have let me stay at your place when the Inn was rebuilt, I love to repay the gesture. You are welcome to stay a few days more."

"Nah, we will only be in the way for your other guests." Amelia moves to plant one kiss each on every child's forehead. "Besides, I suspect that Delbert likes to get back to work his observatory with his assistant."

"Ah, yes." Sara turns to him. "How do you and B.E.N get along? Nothing that have backfired yet since he began helping out a year ago?"

"None at all," answers Dr. Doppler and starts to move up the stairs towards the room they are staying at. "Although his constant talking can get a bit tiresome at times."

When Amelia pass Sarah to follow her husband the captain halts, leans in slightly and speaks with a low voice. "Now Delbert knows how I felt once he himself got onboard my ship." They both chuckles slightly at that. "You don't mind to keep an eye on the children while we pack, right?" Amelia asks on her way up the stairs.

"No, not at all."

Not that long after B.E.N's loud voice breaks the silence of the calm afternoon as the robot comes down the stairs. "We are leaving?" he asks with a sad voice. "Already? But I love it here. Can't we stay a little longer?"

"No, B.E.N," Delbert answers to the robot's last question from where he comes after down the stairs, one big bag filled with possessions in each hand. "We have stayed long enough, haven't we?" Only half an hour later Sarah and Jim waves the Doppler family of as Amelia, Delbert, their four kids and B.E.N.

* * *

Silver knows it is a chance, a sure risk to be discovered and found by those he wish to remain hidden from. He is now not in a group, after all. No mates to protect him, no-one to look over his shoulder. But some information is often preferable than no information at all. Therefor he have come to this dimply lit pub, which is highly heavy with smoke from surely a dozen different brands of cigars and cigarettes.

The bartender is a bit shady, but that is something Silver have anticipated at a bar with a location such as this. Whatever kind of people that walks in can be trouble, or have trouble close in their tracks, so the bartender must be weary to everyone, maybe even those people he knows. The same can be said to the customers, but everyone that seeks up a bar in the bad side of town have the sense to keep to themselves.

Even in light of this, Silver is able to collect information in a place like this. He have sharp ears, sharper than what might be expected, so he can make out what the conversations around him are about even when they are mostly in low, hushed voices. John have had some hard time on one occasion when one of the other costumers, one that have seems to be without company by the looks of it, have been a bit too intoxicated and have started singing loudly.

It have been innocent enough in the beginning, but it have only grown bigger and bigger to the point of where the drunkard argues with no-one in particular. That have been the point where the bartender have been forced to throw the troublemaker out on the street. Silver have gotten a glance on how the poor man landed, and it have been with the head first.

The bartender have been stronger than he have looked, as the intoxicated costumer have had much trouble to resist. And the high, long curve the costumer made once he was thrown out was most magnificent. John wouldn't be surprise if he is to stumble over that man on the way away from here, knocked out from the fall.

What he have found out during the year is that there still seems to not be any trouble on Montressor nor on the Interstellar Academy, or at least not so big as to create headlines among the pubs anyway, so that means Jim must be alright. All of the few pirates that have survived the adventure planet seems to have been finally been sentenced and imprisoned. _They must be real crossed that I am not among them._

The whole ordeal with the treasure planet have been the hot subject for the past year now, the story have seemed to be retold only again and again in every pub Silver have visited throughout the months. In the beginning many have been real surprised that the place have existed in the first place.

Then it have been pure nostalgia the rest of the time, until the whole subject have cooled of quite recently. Some bitter feelings have also been there why it have been necessary to blow the planet up. They have either forgotten the part where Nathaniel Flint have rigged it to do so, chosen not to take that into consideration or have not heard of it at all.

But the most prominent part of every retelling and version of the story throughout the year is the one who have saved the survivors from the destructing flames. The ship's cabin boy, a teenager no less, that have guided the rest to use the mythical object that the great Nathaniel Flint himself have used so many times. The devise that have enabled Flint's crew to appear and reappear out of thin air, like ghosts.

Some of the tellers, a very few individuals, theories that this boy can be the somehow tied up with the old pirate legend, Nathaniel Flint, himself, and even goes so far to say that the two of them are related. _Outmost laughable theory._

Silver have heard from a drunk officer from the interstellar navy some 4 months ago, that have had some fun together with a group of friends from the fleet, that Amelia seems to have married and gotten herself some children. None of them have mentioned any specific names, but when John have heard the phrase 'strict devil-cat that can take her accomplishments concerning Flint up her bum together with the rest of the interstellar higer-ups' he has no trouble to figure out who it was.

Today the murmurs throughout the pub tells of mostly the events on the planet and in the near area in space. A raid that have gotten stopped by the local police, a bank that have gotten robbed, another merchant ship that have lost its cargo, the usual things that Silver are to expect. There is nothing out of the ordinary, and he is happy for that. Nothing have still happened on Montressor, neither on the interstellar academy.

John decides it is finally time to leave after an hour and an half of just sitting at the table in the darkest corner in the entire establishment, working incredibly slowly on two pints of dark ale. But as he is to move to the entrance there is someone who takes a strong hold of his organic arm. Silver turns to snap what the deal is, but he halts himself just as he opens his mouth to speak. The stranger have a hood over his head, and its shadows obscures the features of the face. But from what the cyborg can see he knows this stranger all too well. John gets cold all over his body, all into the deep of his stomach.

With the free hand the stranger folds the hood down, and the face of Maddox Flint emerges fully. "I have finally caught up to you."

* * *

The raid party have not too hard to break into the buildings of the academy and search. But it gets apparent quite quickly that something is wrong. The academy is pretty much deserted, not one single teen is there. So it is with sullen faces that the group of ten comes to see their captain on the top deck.

"Captain, we can't find the boy," they inform. "All the buildings are basically empty."

Maddox's eyes narrows. "This is suspicious, indeed," he says and ponders for a moment on why Silver would have told him that Jim Hawkins is at the academy. Suddenly it hits him, and he gets the overwhelming notion to kill someone in order to release the raging fury that builds up inside him.

"It was a ruse! A red herring! He wanted to gain time by making us search in vain!" _That must be why he didn't even slows down when he passed the planet; not that he is as big of an coward that I thought, but to get to the boy as fast as possible!_ "The kids have leave for the summer!" As he speaks of this revelation, of this obvious thing that he should have understood far earlier, he walks up to one of the ship's canons. He quickly takes a seat and aims.

"Gain time for what?" one in the crew asks, a bit confused.

"To warn the boy, of course!" With that he fires. The shot hits one of the buildings, and from it one of the walls explodes with a sounding boom into a thousands of pieces and falls to the ground. It leaves the side of the building open, and lets everyone see into the rooms and hallways within. The sight looks a bit like a gigantic dollhouse now, only more real.

Maddox breathes out heavily. He have kept breath when he pushed the trigger, as if it sometime would have made the explosion bigger. He have really hopes for the whole building to fall, and is a bit disappointed that it still stands. The action serves it purpose somewhat, anyway, as some of his irritation of this maddening oversight washes of him. He hopes that he have hit _someone_ , even if it is a poor substitute.

"Quick, we have to take up the trail," he growls as he gets of the canon. "Which way was he heading? Did anyone see?"

"Straight towards Montressor, captain," answers the helmsman.

"Follow him! Now!"

* * *

Jim takes a seat at one of the dining tables with a cup of coffee. The coffee have become a habit of his to keep him up the late hours at the academy. It have been many, many nights with barely any sleep, where he have studied hard and long to tests. There have been many projects, too, where he have worked together with his classmates. There the coffee have come in handy as well.

On the table there is also Morph, who have been offered a cookie by Jim and is now eating it with content. Opposite him Sarah already sits, already ready with a cup of coffee of her own. She smiles at him, and he smiles back. "It's amazing, huh?" she asks. "How every have changed."

"All because that strange map," he agrees.

"I wonder how things would have look like today if that Billy Bones character never have crashed here," she wonders. "I like to think that things would have been alright - no, things was on it's way to the better."

"Don't you think that you misremember a bit now, mum?" Jim chuckles. "I had just been arrested, remember? Again, if I may add."

"Yeah," she smiles. "And I refuse to think that it would have gone any worse than that. You are a good boy, Jim. You don't belong at any detention center or in one of those jails. You belong here, with me."

He gives her a doubtful look. "You _do_ know that I like to get out and about from time to time, right? I like to have my own life and my own rules."

"Don't destroy my dreams." An amused gleam enters her eyes. "I want to have you here with me forever. I like to keep my 'little man'." She reaches over and pinches him slightly on his cheek. If there have been other people in the room he would have objected with full measure. But there are only the two of them there, so he takes it. He don't even move away from her hand. Once she retracts her hand she grows quiet for a long moment. "I love you more than life, Jim," she tells him. "Don't you ever forget that, wherever you might be in the world. I love you, and I _will_ always love you."

"And I you, mum."

Morph eats the last piece of the cookie and gives a small burp, something that makes the teen chuckle a bit. "Morph, you know how to ruin the mood, don't you?"

"You need to train it better," Sarah observes and gives the pink blob a suspicious look. "Don't tell me that you let your pet do this all the time."

"Well…," Jim shrugs. "I don't think you want to know that."

"Figures." The two of them chuckles, and for a moment everything is good.

As if on an evil spell, cast to ruin the mood at it's finest, there is a short series of knocks at the door. It is of a rough and heavy hand, and it has an urgent tone to it. Sarah looks at the wall clock just at the same time as Jim, and they see that it is 22:06.

"Who can that be at this time?" Sarah asks and stands up. She goes to open the door, as her son helps himself to the coffee. He leans a bit where he sits in a try to see who it might be thru one of the windows, but it is too dark. One of the corner of the house is also in the way.

When she makes a loud gasp of surprise he is quick to place down the cup and hurry to Sarah's side, with a worried Morph flying after him. Once he sees who it is that stomps thru the door, right by his astonished mother with a slight limp, his jaw drops open. Morph gives a loud squeal of happiness and flies to the figure and starts instantly to snuggle up at the fat cheek.

"Silver?" Jim asks with a voice that sounds too weak to be his own, completely taken on the bed.

"In the flesh and the metal, lad," John confirms, with a smile spreading on his face, his cybernetic eye shining bright yellow and hand to pet the pink blob at his face. "And a small part rubber, if you inspect my leg a bit closer." He quickly snuggles back at his beloved pet where he stands outside the door before he takes a few steps in. The pink blob takes a seat on his shoulder and babbles for a short moment with happiness.

"This is Silver?" Sarah questions as she closes the door after the surprise guest, as she have only heard of him from Jim before and have not really meet him before. She, however, could as well have remained quiet as far as it concerns Jim.

"Silver!" he calls with a bottomless happiness and runs to fling himself at him. John catches him with a deep laugh, and lets the boy hang in his strong grasp with his feet surely five inches to the ground below. Jim laughs as well, a sound that only grows when Silver twist him this way and that, so that the boy's legs swings out with every turn.

"Silver, what are you doing here?" Jim smiles once he stands on his own feet again, as he looks up at the older man with curiosity. "Aren't you on the run from the police? Well, never mind those, on closer thought you must be wanted by the Interstellar fleet even."

"You bet I am, lad," Silver answers, and it is here that he hesitantly and slowly drops his smile. In it's place is something grim and sad. "But they are not the ones that I am the most worried of at the moment."

Sensing that there is something serious going on Jim gets a bit doubtful. His smile gets smaller, but refuses to disappear completely. He have wondered when he would see his best friend for the whole year, so the happiness he feels now refuses to get quenched right away. Morph gives a worried sound and looks at Silver for an explanation. "What do you mean?" Jim asks, and Silver's expression only seems to get sadder. "What, something happened?"

"I am sorry, Jimbo, lad. I am so terribly sorry, but you are in danger."

"Danger?" echoes Sarah, the poor soul entirely forgotten at the moment.

"What danger?" asks the boy, his smile finally going away. "What do you mean?"

"Someone is on his way. Someone very dangerous. And we need to leave. Now."

Needless to say, both Jim and Sarah are confused. "Wha- Leave?" Jim sputters. "Why? Who is coming here? Why is this person dangerous?"

"I will explain everything later," Silver promise and takes a hold of the teen's arm in his strong but gentle grip with his organic hand. "But we _have_ to leave."

To be left out in the blue like this is very angering to Jim, and with the memory that Silver have done this before it only makes the boy hurt that the older man does it again. It have been hurtful when it was discovered that Silver was a pirate back on the RLS Legacy, and as far as Jim knows John could have continued with the piracy. _Surely he have done something very stupid lately to be hunted like this._ What he don't really know is how right he is of what Silver have done, and that the teen only gets it wrong about the time.

"Oh, so someone is after you, is that it?" Jim asks with irritation in his voice, as he tries to get his limb out of the older man's hand without success. "In that case, why did you come here? You are just leading him, or them, or whatever it is, here."

"That's because they are not only after me, they are after you, too."

"Now, hold on," Sarah breaks in, as she is tired to be left on the sideline without anything to say about. "I like some explanations here."

"You and me both, mum," Jim agrees.

Silver briefly turns to her and gives a small smile, as he have been oblivious up until now who she really is. "Oh, so you are his mother?" he asks. "Good lad he is, if I am allowed to say so myself." Then he turns back to the boy in question. "I'm serious here, we need to go. I promise to explain, only if you come with me." He gets a pondering face. "Maybe it is for the best to take your mother with us as well."

Now it is Sarah that needs to make a double take. "Ooooh, no. No, no, no. I am not going anywhere. My place is here."

Silver grumbles at the resistance he gets, and his own anger starts to show. "Aren't you listening?" With this he takes hold of Sarah as well with his organic hand. He even turns around and starts to walk out thru the door, with them in tow. "If we don't go now, we might be as good as dead. I am trying to save you."

"Take your hand off me!" she struggles. "I refuse to be manhandled like this!"

"Sorry, madam, but I don't give you any choice in the matter."

That surprise her so much that it makes her temporarily shut up. The ruckus makes Morph to leave his place on Silver's shoulder and instead flies up in the air and gives of worried sounds for the evolving situation. It looks between the Silver and Jim, its worry growing. In his mother's silence the teen speak up. "Just tell us what is going on."

"We are leaving," is John's only answer.

Jim realize that there might be no stopping this, whatever this is, one single point comes to his mind. _Maybe this gets me a chance to make him talk out on what's going on._ "What about the guests, then?"

That makes Silver halt. "Guests?"

"Yeah, we have guests tucked in upstairs. They are all sleeping."

The boy can only see the back of the older man, but the boy gets the sense that the older man have some kind of internal conflict. It goes a few second before John lets go of them and speaks again. "Run up to them and wake them up," he tells them in a hurried voice and waves his hands at them to make it swiftly. "Make it quick, I'm not really sure how much time we have."

"We can't drive the guests off!" Sarah disagrees, as she finds her ability to speak again.

"Better than to let them be killed," Silver comments. _Maybe this IS serious,_ Jim comes to think, and only gets more irritated to not be told what this is from the get-go.

"What do we tell them?" the teen asks, and hopes that he will get more information on what have riled John up.

"I don't know!" an angry Silver tells him and starts to gesticulate a bit with his hands. "Tell them anything. Fire exercise, insect infestation, mad rodents. Tell them anything, just have them out of their beds and out the door!"

" _Not_ happening!" Sarah steps in and quickly positions herself in front of the stairs up to the second floor. "This is _my_ inn and _my_ guests, so _my_ word goes."

"Then _you_ go up those stairs and send them packing," Silver orders.

"No." She have really become angry now, and her eyes flashes with that very feeling at John. "They will stay in bed and you will leave."

"Now hear here, lady-" Silver begins, but is quickly cut off.

"No, _you_ hear. What right do you have to just stomp in here and scare my visitors away? They make up my living. And then you try to kidnap us-"

Now it is Silver's turn to interrupt, his mind also quite angry at the moment. "I think the word you really mean to say is _save_ -"

Sarah cuts him of again. " _KIDNAP_ us to who knows where, from someone that only _you_ claim is dangerous or even exist. Do you really think we would believe you?" Morph silently rises one of its chubby arms without any hesitation and declares in its own way that it believes Silver, but the gesture seems to go over everyone's heads.

"I... kinda… believe him," Jim speaks out, uncertain of what he really should say. This is Silver, one of the few friends he have… well, his _best_ friend... his _first_ friend. John wouldn't come up with something like this, to be afraid or run for nothing. Even though Jim's mother might not like it, and that she don't know Silver as well either, Jim suspect that this is serious.

"Well, thank you, Jimbo," John smiles at him.

"Do you, really?" Sarah asks, not believing what she is hearing.

"Yeah, but I like to know more about it before I go send everyone off."

"And I have told you," Silver says, punctuating his words really clearly. "We have no time, he can be here any minute."

"Who?" Jim asks.

A sudden 'boom' shakes the house. A bright light flashes thru the windows from the outside. Everyone in the room jumps surely three feet into the air from the surprise, and makes their jerks synchronized in the process. Morph even cry's out, and quickly flees to Jim's pocket for safety.

"Now your guests surely are up an about," Silver mutters.

Both Jim and Sarah goes to look out at where the explosion have sounded. In the darkness they see that their pier is now gone. "Dear God, what is happening?" Sarah whispers.

"What do you think?" John answers with sarcasm as he shuts the door with a hard thud and locks it from the inside. "Now we really need to get out of here."

Jim makes his way to the opposite side of the house he can see from another pair of windows that figures of unknown people are quickly making their way up to the house's front door by the small bridge-like section of the porch in front of the house. A small flashback of another time, about a year from now, when another gang of pirates have walked up to the front door in the very same manner, comes to his mind. Just as one of these figures starts to try to knock the door down the first visitors comes down the stairs to see what is going on.

"Calm down, everybody," Sarah tries when the lower floor quickly starts to be filled with all the guests. She visibly attempts and fails to control the rising fear in her voice. Behind her Silver, with his organic hand, quickly picks Jim up around the boy's waist. "There is nothing to worry about."

Right at that moment several of the big glass windows are kicked in, and pirates are pouring in. Panic breaks out amongst the guests, and in the confusion John switches his cybernetic to his built-in gun and shoots one of the pirates just on the way in. The pirate is propelled back thru the same window and lands hard on the ground outside. Thereafter he swiftly switch back to his hand again and grabs Sarah just before he rushes out thru the window he have sent the pirate thru.

The other pirates shoots after them, but John moves faster than expected with his big frame and on his limp. Both Jim and Sarah are too shocked at this moment to resist or argue at this very moment from shock that their home is attacked by pirates by a second time. Then Silver quickly grabs Sarah around her waist as well with his metallic hand and jumps down from the porch outside to lands on the hard, rocky ground below with a good grip of Jim and his mother.

First then he sets them down and ushers them towards a longboat, who is hidden well right under the bridge to the door of the house. He is not late to get to the back of the boat, where the steering to the motor is. Within a fraction of a second the rocket is on fire, and they are speeding away with the Benbow Inn growing smaller and smaller at their backs.


	3. Chapter 3: The Investigation Begins

"Jim, we need to go to the police," Sarah says as silent tears streams down her cheeks. It is now in the middle of the night, and none of them have gotten any shuteye. "We need at least contact somebody." To have to see the inn, _her_ home and living, to be burned down again after only one year have really gotten to her. It is frustrating to relive the motional rollercoaster again.

They are now amongst the cargo on a smaller freighter, which the captain have gotten whatever money the three of them can spare to get them out of the near area of Montressor. When it comes to Jim and Sarah it is not much, as they didn't have much on them when they fled. Morph floats over their heads, it sad and depressed as well over the situation and can only whimper now and then at the sight of how wretched the others look.

Jim is to answer, but just as he opens his mouth Silver answer for him. "No, we have neither time or reason with that," the older man says, and makes all eyes turns to him. Morph chirps a bit, and in its own way questions what he means by it. "Wherever we go, they follow. If we stay too long they will catch up, and any police will only put me in jail and have me hanged."

"Silver, who are they?" the boy asks, and he tries his outmost to remain calm.

"I will tell you everything soon enough, but not know." Both _what_ the older man is says it and _how_ he says it points support the thought that Jim gets in his mind; it is a prime example of dilly-dallying, if the teen have ever heard one.

Jim gets irritated. _Don't he trust me enough to tell?_ the boy all but screams in his mind, and he is close to scream it out loud as well. But he stops himself from doing so, as he knows that the situation needs some kind of tact, tact that he slowly but surely runs out of at the moment. _Why can't he just open up?_ "And when is that?" Jim asks, as he tries to keep his voice calm. "We have just lost our home because of them, Silver, and we don't even know who they are. We need to know."

" _Soon_ , alright?" John insist, as he don't even give them a glance. Rather, he turns just a little away from them when he speaks.

"I still don't get why we couldn't at least have gone to the Dopplers," Sarah complains and dries her tears of.

"I have already said it, they will follow us wherever we go," Silver answers. "We will not be safe at any friends of yours, and we will only put them in danger."

"Again, who are 'they'?" Jim gives another try, as he rise his voice just a little. Morph glances at him and gives of a bit of a chirp.

An irritated "Give it a rest, would you," is the only reply he gets.

"What of the guests?" Sarah asks. "You think they got out."

"Likely not. When he is in this mood he is much likely to have an itchy trigger finger."

Jim is not ready to give up his questioning, and therefor speaks up again. "'He?'"

"James!" Silver snaps and looks dead at the boy, with a newfound anger that threatens to turn his mechanical eye red. The outburst takes Jim by a bit of surprise, and he looks at the older man with both brow raised surely over his hairline. Morph gives a small cry and hides away amongst all the cargo that surrounds them. John quickly catches himself and continues with a forced calm. "Now you quit it, or I make you."

"Don't speak to him like that," Sarah defends her son. "We have a right to know who is after us, and why."

"And I _will_ tell you, just not now."

After that John don't speak much at all, and certainly keeps on with his vague answers. Morph braves out from its hiding-spot just moments later, and rests on Silver's shoulder. Even though it have been the older man that have scared him the pink blob is to loyal and caring of him to remain scared of him for too long. They have to sleep by the cargo on the freighter while the ship continues with its journey, although none of them are able to get a good night's rest. Morph is the only one that is able to rests, as it sleeps in one of Jim's pockets. Worry gnaws at them, some reasons are shared while others are more individual.

The night goes by where they sit in mostly silence in the cargo hold in the small freighter. Hours goes, where they just stare into the air before them, without giving the others as much as a glance, as the ship don't stop on the whole while. First at around 17.00 on a somewhat desolate planet with a small population and little to no noteworthy things to compare with, where the captain of the ship refuses to take them longer with no more pay.

They stand there with sad faces as they can only watch how the ship leaves. The morning light comes up at their back, and casts their shadows on the ground as three long fingers. The only thing Jim can find himself to do now is to go over to his mother and hug her tightly, as he have no idea what is to happen now.

 **Partition**

Amelia is tremendously glad for the bed under her, and even more so that it is a featherbed. She have for several months – half a year, for goodness sake! – carried four children in her stomach. Then she have to work thru the several weeks that have followed the birth with constantly attend on them. She can now only smile at the luxury to just lie down undisturbed to the later hours of the morning. Today it is Delbert's turn, with the help of B.E.N, to handle the children for the entirety of the day. Her husband have promised her this day to just be able to lie back and relax – which she does very well on such a comfortable bed.

The sun is shining thru the window and warms her face, she can hear the birds chirp outside and she have the whole bed for herself. And for once, maybe the first time since she have given birth, she don't have to worry too much for her children. _Nothing can destroy this moment,_ she purrs in her mind. _Absolutely nothing._

"Amelia, dearest," Delbert speaks from the other side of the closed bedroom door in a distraught tone. "Terrible news!" He opens the door and flees into the room – with no signs of the children! The wellbeing of her children comes to her first as she shoots up into a sitting position. "Benbow Inn have been burned down to the ground!"

She gives a small sigh that it have not been what she first thought. But it is quickly replaced by her usual seriousness. "Are there anyone hurt?" she asks, just a little sad to have such a perfect morning ruined. "Sarah, Jim or any of the guests?"

"There are bodies," another voice informs from outside the bedroom. A police officer comes into the room, followed by a representative from the interstellar fleet. "All of which are too burned to be identified by just the look of them. We are doing our initial investigation right now."

"They knocked on the door just a few minutes ago," Delbert explains and signs for the two strangers. "It seems that they need us to their investigation, and eventually help them make an arrest."

"Very well, gentlemen," she speaks, and her decade long habit to be direct and businesslike in the face of work and danger comes back to her with ease even though she have had a certain time of parental leave. "I will be glad to hear more of this, but I think that the living room might be more suitable for such a dialogue. I also like to dress into something more presentable."

"Of course, madam," the police nods and leaves the room with the man from the fleet.

Delbert lingers, and by the look on his face there is no secret how worried he is. "This is horrible," he says. "This is the second time all of this happens. Last time, though, there was no guests involved."

"Yes, most distressing, indeed," she agrees and gets up. "I wonder what all of this is about." She goes to the chair where she have put her uniform, which is neatly folded to a perfect square. "Wait," Amelia halts just as she is to take a hold of the clothes and turns to her husband. "Have you left the children alone with B.E.N?"

There is this second where Delbert only looks back at her, uncertain and a bit surprised of why she brings it up. Then a bulb lightens in his head as he realize that _he have left B.E.N alone with the children,_ a robot that isn't suitable to even take care of a cactus. The doctor gets the speed out the room only a person in utter panic can gain. After him Amelia can only roll her eyes, as she wonders what might have possibly made her worthy of this situation.

Only ten minutes later they are all gathered in the living room. Amelia and Delbert shares one sofa, and the police officer shares another with the representative from the fleet on the opposite side of a low table. All four have a cup with smoking hot tea, and a plate of buns have been placed in the middle of the table. B.E.N is entertaining the children on the floor not that far away from them under careful supervision from both Amelia and Delbert. Luckily nothing have happened to the young in the short timespan where both parents have been in the bedroom.

"I thank you to come here and tell us in person of these tragic news," Amelia says to the two visitors. "You surely know that I and my _dear_ husband are close friends with the Hawkins, the owners of the establishment in question." At the word 'dear' she gives a small glare at Delbert, still a bit mad that he have left the kids in the hands of B.E.N without any supervision whatsoever. The doctor can only clear his throat a bit and give a sorry look her way.

"We do," the police officer answers. "And if it turns out that Sarah and James Hawkins are amongst the bodies you have our condolences. There is, however, a second reason to our visit." This makes Amelia and Delbert share a glance. "We have reason to believe that a former acquaintance of yours is involved in this."

"Who?" Amelia is not late to ask.

"John Silver." The name brings up memories for both of the Dopplers, of a big man with half his limbs in metal and of a character quite loud. And, of course, the fact that he is a pirate. The two's expression must have been telling by the words that comes next. "You both remember him, I take it?"

"All too well," Amelia answers, and Delbert gives a nod in agreement. "He was one of the damned pirates that took over my ship one year past after all. I will not forget him very soon."

"As said, we believe that he, amongst other pirates, are responsible for this attack. And the reason for this is the attack on the interstellar academy earlier that very same day."

"The academy have been attacked as well?" Amelia questions astonished.

"Yes," the police officer confirms. "Yet again it is pirates. Strangely the resident buildings intended for the students was the only buildings that was targeted. These buildings was also searched thru, but even stranger is that nothing was stolen. It is reported by witnesses that the pirates seemed to look for some _one_ , not some _what_."

"Before we continue, James was the cabin boy to Silver during the time on the RLS Legacy, correct?" the representative from the fleet asks, the very first time he speaks in the entire visit.

"Yes, he was," she answers. "From what I could understand the two stood on very good terms with each other, at least up to the revelation that Silver was a pirate in the end of the journey."

"Yeah, we read your report on the whole experience," the representative informs. "Now, we have even one more witness who swears that a longboat went ahead of the other pirates even before the arrival at the academy and that it headed straight here, to Montressor. A longboat with the striking resemblance with the pirate ship. So because of some reason they split up, already beforehand, where the bigger part of the pirates goes to the academy to search for some _one_ and one lonely member that heads here, to this planet. The only common denominator of these two places is James Hawkins."

"So you believe the pirates are after him?" Delbert asks. "What for?"

"It was this boy who opened the map, right?" the police officer asks.

"Yes, he was the only one that could," the doctor admits.

"His grades on engineering and physics are also thru the roof," reveals the representative. "Straight A:s on the tests and highly positive recommendations from the teachers – he is even nominated for a diploma the first year of his studies in one of them. All of his other grades are mediocre at best – heck, he is also a troublemaker and brakes a lot of rules just for the fun of it, but nevertheless - he's a genius in those two single subjects."

"He is?" Delbert pales a bit at hearing it, uncertain if he should be proud of such good achievements or shocked that the boy have better grades on the two subjects that the doctor got diplomas the last year of his time at the academy. Then he remembers one thing that Sarah have told him once, and is now a bit ashamed that he haven't really believed her. "So his mother might just have told the truth."

"About what?" the officer asks, clearly not in understanding of what the doctor is talking about.

A small smile appears on Delbert's lips, as he feels a small joy over the memory on that night Sarah have told him this. "That Jim built his first surfer when he was eight." Then the smile disappears as a thought suddenly hits him, and sadness comes to his eyes. "Dear God… Sarah might very well be dead…"

"We are getting of track here," Amelia think and gives her husband a look that tells him to stick to the subject at hand. But there is also a bit of compassion and understanding in her face. "Again, why would pirates want a boy just fresh of his first year from the academy?"

"Think about it," the representative says. "Who wouldn't want someone who is tremendous at engineering and physics in their crew? Someone that is still young enough to be susceptible to ideals and ideas."

"True," she muses, but wonders how easy it is to affect Jim in particular. "But this is all just a theory at this point, right? Or is it proven."

"Yes, it is mostly a theories and speculations at this point, as we are still looking for concrete evidence and proofs," the officer buts in. "This is however a possible reason to the attack on the academy and the lonely longboat, but it is just guesses at this point. And of course we like to wait on the forensic report on the bodies from the burned inn first before we really start looking for motives."

Amelia gives a pondering look. "And Silver's place in this theory?" she asks.

The officer gives a small pause, much like a theatrical effect, while he observes the woman's face with some interest. "We suspect that he was the one in the lone longboat." The news gives some wonder and confusion in her face, a likely reaction the officer is looking for. _What can that bumbling idiot be doing,_ she wonders. _I know he and Jim was good friends, but… what is going on here?_

The officer continues. "Again there is quite a few witnesses - a lone longboat that speeds of by itself, then to be be followed by a ship just ten minutes or so after, tends to rise a bit attention among those that they pass by. And the description by all of those people is of the same man. An old ursid that just happens to be a cyborg. There is only one that fits that description, even though he have not been that active as of late."

"Why go alone before the others?" Delbert wonders aloud. "Why not just stick with the rest of the pirates?"

The officer inches out a bit on the edge of his seat. "For those answer we have one detail of your report, Amelia, which we have already mentioned: James' and John's relationship. This is one of the reasons we came here for, to have this relationship confirmed. So John really seemed to be friend with James?"

"Of what we could tell, yes," Amelia answers, and Delbert nods his agreement.

"So, as our theories goes, Silver might have suspected that the students have leave for the summer in the last second. And to get a better chance to get the boy to come with them peacefully Silver goes before the others to visit as a friend. Now, if this is true, we will not find James amongst the bodies and it will serve as proof to this reasoning. But that is to be seen once the forensics gets done."

Here everyone grows quiet. Amelia stands up, and starts to phase up and down to better think. _Of what they have said, it all sounds… believable. But nothing is proven yet._ "Are you sure of anything?" she asks. "Something that is not half-guesses or theories. What more _facts_ do you have?"

"The name of one of the other pirates that Silver works together with," the officer nods. "Someone calling himself Maddox Flint."

Both Amelia and Delbert turns their heads at that piece of news. "Related to _the_ Flint?" Delbert asks. "To Nathaniel Flint?"

"Claims so," the officer confirms. "It is Maddox's ship that attacked the academy and later the inn, and it is to his ship that the longboat Silver used belongs to. Whatever findings we get in terms of evident we should go after these pirates as soon as possible."

"Which is another reason we have come," the representative speaks up. "To ask you, Amelia, to help us track them down. You have gotten to know Silver at least somewhat on the journey to treasure planet, which should come to help. And not to mention that you are a very competent captain of the interstellar fleet!"

Delbert and Amelia locks eyes with each other. They can both see that the other finds that this is placed by their feet quite sudden, and that they both wonder, for a brief moment, if they really should go thru with this. But then they find that they both finds this the right thing to do. Amelia wants to stop pirates to kill and steal, and wants to make the world a safer place. Delbert wants to get another taste of adventure and danger, not to go back to the dark, empty rooms with only books and a telescope as company. And, not to mention, one of their friends is in danger. After all, Jim have saved their life once; it is only fair for them to return the favor.

"So, when did this happen?" Amelia asks, ready to tackle the problem.

"Just yesterday."

 **Partition**

Silver leads them of the ship and to a small cave in the outskirts of the only place of trade with the outside world there is on the planet. It must be the most prosperous place there is on this world, but from what Jim can make of the place it have not much to come with at all even with the already mentioned status it have. It is not as prosperous as any other town he have seen, and is a really poor excuse of a settlement. It is, however, the best that the planet can come with.

"You two stay here in the cave," John tells them in a commanding manner. "Do not come out of the cave. If someone who looks like pirates are to come in here you should either run or hide. Don't let them catch you."

"So 'they' are pirates?" Jim glares, really tired of all this and wants an explanation to everything more than anything. "Care to tell us more?" John merely gives the boy a glare of his own as a warning before he turns and goes out into the darkness. "Where are you going, anyway?" Jim calls after him.

"I'll see if I can get something eatable for us," Silver answers.

It is first then that the teen's stomach makes a loudly growl for food, and it reminds him that the last thing he remembers having is the cup of coffee the day before. He rubs at his abdomen with a hand as he looks over to his mother, who have gone to one of the cave's wall and have taken a seat. Morph comes over to him and garbles a bit, it even turns into an empty plate with only a few crumbles on it, and the boy understands that it is hungry, too.

Jim takes a seat at Sarah's side as she takes her legs close to her chest. She hugs her legs closely, and have her face planted on her knees.

"How are you doing?" Jim asks her softly and puts an arm around her shoulders.

"How do you think?" she answers in a sad tone.

He gives a small thought on it before he gives a guess. "Miserable?"

"Yes," Sarah answers with the most tired voice Jim have heard her use. Even more tired so than when he have eavesdropped on her when she talked to Delbert that fateful night that late to the whole journey to treasure planet. _Manage it? I'm at the end of my rope. Ever since his father left, well, Jim has never recovered._ Those words rings in Jim's mind with no fail, after a whole year.

"Depressed?" he adds. "Powerless?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Morph comes over and rubs at her cheek as it makes a sad sound, and it is only then that she slightly takes her head from her knees. She gives the pink blob a sad smile, but there is no happiness to find in her face. _It is exactly the same as to how I feel, too,_ Jim is sad to observe. Not only is he having one of the worst moments in his life, he have to see his mother live thru it as well. The worst thing of all, though, is that they don't even know why.

As she plants her face back on her knees they grow quiet once more. Jim feels that he should say at least something, but can't come up with anything good. "I'm sorry for the inn… again...," is everything he says at the end.

She doesn't answer. Jim tries to come up with any more words to make her feel better, but every phrase that he comes up with in his mind withers apart as soon as he opens his mouth to speak them. He have neither the necessary amount of happiness or bravery at the moment chare it with his mother. He have barely anything to himself, as he feels mostly sad.

He figures that the best thing he can do at the moment is to just sit there and share any comfort he can give with the small embrace of his one arm around her shoulders. Morph takes a seat on Sarah's shoulder and tries to comfort her as well. They then sit there huddled up together in the lonely cave, and lets the silence once again come over them in the wait for Silver to return. After a moment Morph seems to go asleep in the warmth of Sarah's body.

Silver returns after about 90 minutes. Over his back he have some dead animal of the wildlife of this planet. Jim don't know what he should make of the creature, really, but it looks to be some kind of big rodent. It have a fluffy coat in brown and grey shades, so it look bigger than it really is.

"Don't tell me that you are going to cook that," the boy says as he realize that the animal surely must be skinned, gutted and all sorts of things before it can be eaten. He isn't sure that he can stomach it.

"You have any better idea?" Silver asks nonchalant and flops the body onto the cave floor. "Do you have some food all cooked and ready down your back pocket?"

"No," Jim sighs. "But do you really need to… you know… 'prepare' it in here?"

"I saw a pack of predators half a kilometer that away," John tells and waves a hand to a certain direction with his organic hand. As he do he switch his cybernetic hand to the blade Jim have seen him use so many times in the galley of RLS Legacy. "They are certainly out looking for a meal, which is much easier to steal from some lone sod than it is to hunt down themselves. In here I have more protection, the pack have only one opening to come thru and they are less likely to try at all the bigger number we are."

With that he goes down to his knees at the side of the animal. "Do be a good lad and help me keep an eye at the opening, Jimbo. Who's to say if they will keep themselves from at least try."

Jim do just that. He looks at the opening to the cave from where he sits and hugs his mother, who don't look up from her position even once. He can hear how Silver works, and can't help but to winch a little at the especially wet sounds. The teen avoids to look at it completely, and keeps his eyes glued to the darkness outside. As the animal is prepared there is not a word said between the three; Silver seems to concentrate on what he is doing, Sarah seems to be too exhausted emotionally and Jim is can't just come up with the words to speak.

As it turns out it takes a long time to prepare an animal to be cooked. It surely takes another 30 minutes to make all the essential arrangements. When John is done he heads out with all the bi-products in the form of guts, fur and such. He heads out once more to discard it a certain distance away, so that the predators may take it. Once on his way back he collects wood, and comes is back 35 minutes after his departure. Not even once do Sarah perk up from where she sits, with her face hidden in her knees. Jim is unsure if she is asleep or not, and she only grows more worried for her.

Shortly after they have a fire set up just by the entrance, where Silver sets pieces of the meat to be cooked on sticks over the fire. At this point Morph awakes from the smell of cooked food, and at the sight of the meat it quickly flies over to the fire for a better look.

"Do you remember," Silver suddenly and quietly says from where he sits by the fire, "the story I told you of that Nathanial Flint have a descendant?"

Jim looks over to him with a sullen look on his face. "A story will not make me feel better, Silver, even how good or alive it might be," he lets the older man know.

"If it have to do with our current situation, would you be interested then?"

Jim observes John for a moment, as the teen's mind starts to analyze those words. "What?"

"You have bothered me to tell you who is after us, and I am now ready to tell you." John looks right at him, and for once not revealing anything of how he feels in his features. "But of course, if you have changed your mind-"

"No!" Jim grows just a bit angry at that, and gives Silver a small glare. Just as he do, Sara lifts her head from its place on her knees for the first time for hours to draw her attention to Silver. Even how down she is she likes to hear the reason for her great loss. "Don't you dare, Silver. I want to know. My mother want to know. You are not to hold us in the dark any longer."

"Then, if you would make yourself comfortable," John advices, and follows his own words as he changes his position on the other side of the fire, "as it will get a long story." Sarah finally brings her face up to look at the older man and take part of what he is to say. Neither of the Hawkins then observes John with interested eyes from where they sit against the cave wall, their bodies dulled from the emotional journey that they have been put thru.

"It all started so long ago," he begins as he picks one smaller piece of cooked meat and gives it to Morph, who eager to take it and gulp it down in big bites. "On the day I enlisted in the crew to a man named Maddox Flint. He, you must understand, saw himself entitled to Nathaniel's treasure as a family treasure. A treasure that he is ready to kill or be killed for, something I sadly failed to fully see when I knew him back then. A mistake I greatly regrets now."


	4. Chapter 4: Maddox Flint's Past

About 110+ to 50+ years before the movie

In Nathaniel Flint's younger days he gets a son that he names Steward Flint, who grows up to be much like his father. The trait that stands out the most is the extreme obsession of gold, gems and valuables, which is the strongest trait that he shares with his father. The obsession is something Nathaniel only encourages, as like-minded understands each other the best.

Even so, Nathaniel have no plan to share the treasures he have worked so hard on collecting, not even with his own son. Therefor Nathanial never tells Steward of its location nor how to open the map, neither is the son allowed to accompany Nathaniel to treasure planet. So when it is time for the two to part for the last time Steward steals the map from his father, an act that Nathanial discovers first when all the traps on the treasure planet is set an when all his crew have been shoot except for B.E.N.

Nathan sees it just as one more reason to take B.E.N's memory away, and pray that Steward never figures out how to open the map by himself. Steward never does, but his search of the treasure planet never ended.

Steward follows in his father's tracks and becomes somewhat of a pirate, although he never gets as popular as his father. After a certain time Steward fathers a son himself, which he names Richmond Flint. Richmond couldn't be more different than his father, and never really have any taste of valuables or piracy. In his entire childhood Richmond have to see his father search high and low for Nathaniel's treasure without any success, and to hear on many occasions how Steward curses the map for not opening. In the end, Richmond grows tired of it all. He runs away with the map himself to hide it, in hopes that Steward will put the search to a rest and to concentrate to be a better father.

Things don't not turn out how Richmond hoped, as Steward don't stop. Instead Steward sees it as a big betrayal on his son's part and leaves Richmond in the gutter to fend for himself. The last time Richmond hears of his father is of Stewards death by the hands of another pirate several years later.

Ashamed for what his father have done to him, Richmond changes his last name from Flint to Samuels, and from the day he have been left alone he works hard to get an honest life. Richmond's life gets better and better with the years, as he was able to build up his life on his own. He gets a job, buys a home, finds a woman that he falls for, he even marries her and stays with her as a big change from the ones that came before him.

Then comes the day his child gets born, a son he names Maddox Samuels.

* * *

About 45+ years before the movie

"Daaaad!" A young Maddox, at the most ten or eleven years old, tugs at his father's pants with a frown on his face. "Why can't we go after Nathaniel's treasure?" Both of them are in the livingroom of the modest resident of the Flint's, something far less glamorous than what might be believed for a family that derives from someone so legendary.

"Because, boy, that treasure is nothing but trouble," he answers, a bit irritated of his son's endless pleas and questions on the subject. "Hundreds of treasure hunters, pirates and other kinds have gone after that treasure, and none of them have gotten anything for it."

"But we can find it!" Maddox insists. "I know we can."

His father sighs, as anger flashes in his eyes. "For all the galaxies sake, Maddox, if I have it my way you would never have learned of my grandfather Nathaniel, or that we even are related."

The story of Nathaniel Flint is known to any and all in one form or another, if it is of only a brief example or sub note in a discussion over the kitchen table or a long story to tell in front of an open fire. So it is no surprise that the small Maddox knows about the infamous pirate, but what he didn't know is that he is related by blood to him. As far as he knows he have the last name of Samuels, a usual name for a usual family, which moves usual lives as laborers. In fact, his father, Richmond Samuels, own a small workshop in the back of their house.

As chances goes, Richmond have been able to keep quiet about his relation to the known pirate to his wife and son up to about half an hour ago. He even changed his own last name from Flint to Samuels in his youth. Then this unfortunate day have come when someone recognized his features and called the well-kept secret out in front of Maddox. Richmond have never been more upset, and never for such a long time either. He is still not over it.

"But dad!" Maddox goes on, relentless in the face of his father's reluctance. "How can you say that? Aren't you glad for it? We have a fortune waiting for us somewhere, ours by right."

Maddox's father tenses up at that, rage ablaze in his eyes, and before the boy can react a stern hand planta a hard blow on his cheek. It isn't often Maddox receives a whack by his father, and when he do it is often for a good reason.

"Ours by right?" Richmond spits out, as anger boils up inside him by that very phrase. "OURS BY RIGHT! He was a PIRATE! The only right they concern is their own. His wealth is not ours, neither is his fame. It never have, and never will. So stop with this constant nagging and forget that you ever heard any of it."

Maddox never have. He couldn't, really, and finds it strange to even try. He keeps on thinking on all the great riches that treasure planet must conceal, but from this moment on he learns to keep quiet about it in front of his father.

Richmond never speaks of Nathaniel or about the Flint family history until an eternity later. At least around fifteen years pass, all the while Maddox couldn't stop to think about it, that the old man starts to act out of character. He starts slowly but surely loose himself, to get disoriented and get lost in time. He gets harder and harder to tell the difference between now and then.

After additional five years Richmond can't recognize his own wife, neither don't he remember that he has a son. Instead he sees his own father instead of Maddox. It is first now that Maddox learns more of his great-grandfather, the infamous pirate captain Nathaniel Flint, and the existence of the map to treasure planet.

* * *

About 35+ years before the movie

Maddox have nothing to lose now. Nothing to go back to, nothing to hold him back and one clear goal in his mind. He have sold his father's house and all his family's possessions, and now Maddox have one big coin pouch that is so full that it threatens to take down his pants if it wasn't for the thick, solid belt.

The piers stretches out on his right, with ships in different sizes and with different amount of decoration that all but a few moves to or from the harbor. Maddox have had his eyes set on one of them that is for sale, and he have already spoken with the salesman. Flint only need to show the big pouch and that ship is as good as his.

He have already found a crew that is willing to go finds the treasure planet with him, and luckily for him all of them have been gullible enough to believe him when he promised to share the treasure with them. Maddox needs to think up a solution on how to get rid of them before it goes so far, but that is a problem he will take care of once it arrives. He won't part with a single coin of what is rightfully his.

When he arrives the pouch change owners, words of luck is shared and then there is nothing more to it. Maddox have a ship, and he feels like he is hundreds of miles on his travel already. It is a smaller ship, with great maneuverability and speed but with less firepower and with weaker durability to damage. But that's alright, all Maddox wants is for things to go swiftly.

Mere hours later the cargo space are filled with food and a small collection of firearms are in a small armory, things that Maddox have bought with what little money he have left from the purchase of the ship. The crew are onboard, and the ship is ready for departure.

"Captain on deck!" one of the crew declared to the others once Maddox gets onboard. Flint likes the sound of that, and his heart swells with pride. _Just like Nathaniel._

"Untie us and set sail!" Maddox orders as he heads to the helm, and takes position by the wheel with one hand on it and the other behind his back. "We will be going at once."

* * *

About 30+ years before the movie

Years of searching, and still there is no sign of the map. It is a big understatement to call Maddox angry about it; he is completely mad. He have searched high and low for it, with his father's half logical phrases in his mind as the only guide. It have gone far longer and with much more setbacks than Maddox have ever dreamed of, he who have thought that he would find the map within a year after leaving port all that time ago. That is as long as the food have been planned to suffice.

When the larder have been nearly empty Maddox thought that it was only to one thing: to take the trade of Nathaniel Flint to heart and take to piracy. He have no more money to buy more food, and he figured that it was just as well to steal as his great grandfather have. And the crew never seemed to have any problems with it, with the promise of the riches from treasure planet always in their ears. Maddox have always suspected that the bigger part of them have always been of the stealing kind anyway, especially with the place he hired them from in mind. In back allies, dark pubs and the likes.

They have only targeted smaller vessels, the ones with more food than riches like transport vessels. They only concentrates on to hit them hard and fast, to be in and out quicker than the target can react, and it turns out very successful for them. After a hundred accomplished hit-and-runs they have also added to their armory the few more firearms, enough so that everyone in the crew can be equipped with either a gun or a rifle.

Nevertheless, they have always concentrated on the goal: to find the map. Maddox is dead set to find it, to bear witness of his forefather's glory and enjoy the fruits of his legacy. To have what he so strongly believes is his, whatever others might say about it. He is convinced that Nathaniel Flint have left his descendants the treasure planet and the trove from a thousand worlds.

There have been little to no success on that front this far: they have searched area after area, planet after planet and rock after rock, all of which could have been the place where Richmond have hidden the map.

With every location they leave, the angrier Maddox becomes. And with every year that goes without the discovery of treasure planet, the more the crew starts to wonder if they ever will find it.

* * *

About 25+ years before the movie

 _This small, shivering boy can't be much to have_ , Maddox can't help to think the first time he lies eyes on Kinsley. With no visible strength to his body, and that he have also admitted that he don't know much about the life on a ship, then what good use is he? _It would be a kind gesture to just say no._

A boy of surely 14 or 15, Kinsley is far too small for his age. He have gotten onboard the ship today the last time the ship have been docked without anyone noticing. He have been sitting in the larder and eaten a few of the fresh fruits that have just been brought in. The boy have been caught and have been given a blue eye not only for hitchhiking away in their storage, but also to have taken of their food. The boy must have gotten onboard when the ship was docked at the last port, when the crew have traded a few things they have stolen for things they need.

Once caught the only thing the boy can get out is his own name, and only that he can't say without sputtering. Now, when he is brought before the captain, the boy offers to join the crew instead to be further punished, although the words are hardly able to get out of Kinsley's mouth for all the sputtering.

The boy is starved to the point he is a wandering skeleton, and his eyes seems too big to his thin skull. It wouldn't have surprised Maddox if the boy shivers just because he is freezing from not having any body fat at all to warm himself up with, but Maddox's knows that is not the reason in this case. It is because the boy is scared to be beaten any more. Or worse, killed. And rightly so, with all the different plans the captain have for the boy at the moment.

"So, you want to join my crew?" Maddox asks the shivering boy. Kinsley nods, but don't say a word. "You don't look that you can do body labor. What I need is strong muscles, quick hands and steady feet, all of which you lack. So tell me, boy, why I shouldn't just throw you overboard this instant?"

Kinsley starts to shake even more, and his mouth opens to speaks. No words dares to come out, only single syllable. Maddox frowns at the sight, as he sees not that much of worth before him. After just a few seconds of hearing the incomprehensible sounds the captain turns to the guard that holds the boy down.

"You shouldn't have come to me with this," he throws at him, as if it is an insult. "It is not worth my time. You should have just shot him, but he is not even worth a bullet. Throw him over the gunwale, and be done with it!"

The crewman nods and starts to drag the boy out of the cabin. The stuttering intensifies, in both volume and speed. Maddox turns his back on them, and tries to block out the sounds. Just as the crewman and the boy are to pass the threshold the first coherent words comes from Kinsley's voice since he have gotten his last name right.

"RUMOURS! I'M GOOD WITH RUMOURS!"

Flint only chuckles a bit. "What am I to do with rumours?"

Kinsley's words comes now tumbling out, which is a big contrast to just a short moment ago. "You can't believe how much you can get out from listening to everything that is said in a market. Or in a pub. Or anywhere." The crewman that drags him is now opening the door, and takes the first step outside with the resisting boy right behind him.

Maddox can only snort at that, as it sounds just a bit too unbelievable. He have never believed much in the power of words, and believe mostly that action is a more reliable force. Flint don't even answer the boy anymore, and directs his attention to how to plan his search for what he is looking for in the coming week.

Kinsley starts to sputter more individual syllables than words now as he is now outside the room. But then one single coherent line comes out between his lips, filled with panic and fear of his impending fate.

"I'VE HEARD YOU LOOK FOR TREASURE PLANET!"

"So what of it?" Flint rolls his eyes. "Everyone must know that by now."

"BUT YOU CAN'T FIND IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A MAP!"

That hits something of an odd note; barely anyone knew that there are a real map to treasure planet. But it is nothing hard to fabricate out of thin air, either. "Many places have maps to them, boy. Nothing strange with that."

"THE MAP TO TREASURE PLANET IS A ROUND BALL IN BRONS AND GOLD, WITH STRANGE MARKS IN THE FORM OF CIRCELS AND DOTS!"

Not everyone knows _that_. Maddox's eyes grows big at that. As an action strong captain that he fancies himself to be he swirls around right then and there to point to the crewman that have Kinsley in his grip. "Stop it right there!" The crewman halts right in his tracks. "Get the boy back in here, and leave." The crewmember, a bit uncertain at first, shoves the boy inside and closes the door, just as he is told.

"Now," Flint begins to growl as his eyes narrows at the boy. Kinsley shakes even more under the angry gaze. "Tell me about these rumours."

Maddox have tried his outmost to keep how the map looks like a secret, something only he and a few chosen in the crew knows, the few who he have thought would bring the map to him immediately if these crewmembers find it in a searchparty. He have told the few who knows again and again not to share this with anyone, but maybe someone have done so anyway. Flint himself have at least not breathed it to anyone outside of the crew, as he don't want to risk to have someone else look for what is rightfully his.

"I-I-I've h-h-heard it in the local i-i-inn," Kinsley says. "I have learned m-m-many things just by listening to them, l-like how the map looks like. And I have learned that many are l-l-laughing a-a-and jok-k-king about you."

Maddox thinks at first that the boy most be joking himself, but then sees that Kinsley must be too scared to joke at the moment. Flint starts to scratch at his head and goes back and forth a bit. He have not thought of rumours as something useful, nothing but gaggle that old people and fools take part in to either past the time or to indulge the few brain-cells present in their noggins. If what this boy says is true it must be investigated.

"I want you," Maddox therefor growls and points a threatening finger at Kinsley, "to take me to the closest place you heard this rumours. I want to hear them myself."

The boy is too terrified to argue, and the day after the two of them are at a pub under heavy disguise. And right as Kinsley have claimed, the guests are chatting away not only about the treasure planet, but indeed of the map as well. How it looks like, different theories on what the markings on it can be, if you must open it in a certain way. And, indeed, many of them are laughing at it all, as one big joke.

As Flint hears all of this he knows that he must take a new grip on his crew, as to not repeat such a leak. He must put fear in them, so that they will do everything he say without any fail, much like Kinsley seems to do. Even though the boy have only known Flint since only the day before the kid have done exactly what he have been told without any objections or fails. _Maybe I have someone really useful here, someone who might just be right in how useful rumours are._

As the two returns to the ship the crew got a chock when Maddox downright shoots one of the crew without any warning, followed with a few angry words on how things are to change how things on the ship is handled from now on.

* * *

About 20+ years before the movie

For more than a decade and a half he have looked for that map, and finally he have found it. Maddox Flint smiles where he sits by his desk at ball in his hand, transfixed of the shine it gives of in the yellowish light of the oil lamp that stands on his desk in front of him. His desk is placed towards the wall furthest into the room, with Maddox's back against the door. The last words of his father have been delirious and encrypted, old nutcase that he was the very last year of his life. Now, an eternity later filled with endless hours to decode those words and to search the stars on fruitless raids as a madman, the trove of a thousand worlds is finally within Maddox's grasp.

A sound goes off behind him. He gives a deadly glare over his shoulder towards the only door of the room; the sole way to get in or out of the damp cabin he is in, as there are not even windows to provide another entrance or to give more light. The door is shut and locked, just the way he have left it and he is still alone. He is slow to tell the sound of as one of the many cries and complains the ship makes at the constant strain that the space gives it.

He can't really trust anyone, not even his own crew, when he is this close. When the big treasure only is a few months away at most. His crewmates are a bunch of thieves, murderers and vandals anyway. He might have promised them a part of the treasures, but none of them shall have it. The treasure is his by birthright.

Therefor he jumps at every sound when he is alone, even when he have locked himself inside his own cabin, and he refuse to part with the map for a single second.

Maddox looks slowly back to the sphere once he is sure that there is no danger to him. The small circles and lines on the map are complex and makes the object beautiful in its own right. But how to open it is the only thing that Maddox concentrates on at the moment. He remembers everything his father have said that last year, the only year that the old man have ever spoken about the map and the treasure. Before he got soft in the head Maddox's dad have been dead set to leave the treasure alone, as he believed that it was cursed, and therefor kept shut about it even though Maddox couldn't stop asking about it.

Is there anything in those half-finished mumbles and disoriented words of Maddox's father that concerns how to open the map? Maddox frowns after a few moments, frustrated that he can't find the answer; the riddles and babbles of his dad goes into each other, and Maddox finds it impossible to make something sensible of most of it. It is a wonder that Maddox could understand enough to find the map.

He tries the map out next, pushing buttons and sliding parts in different ways. When this don't produce any results after a few moments of tweaking he takes five seconds to observe if there is any visual changes to this weird object or if there is any hint or clue exposed on its surface to how to open it. But even when he explores it the best he can he have no such luck; even how much he tries he is unable to open the map.

After working at it for 20 minutes there is no understatement to describe him as enraged. In the end he throws it towards the wall right in front of him in a try to force it open, only for it to then land hard on the tabletop. The hit leaves a nasty mark on the wall, but there is no other results than that. No directions, no treasure, no planet. His anger only grows. He takes the metal ball and hits it several times at his desk, but still the map shows no signs to give in.

"Years of searching...," he hiss as his eyes narrows dangerously at the orb. "Only to hit a wall by this map?" It is unacceptable! He refuse to stop now, he wants what he consider to be his. So with that he stands up to make a last lash at the map, and that he did in the form of his gun. He brings out his sidearm from the holster at his hip, swiftly aims and shoots.

That only gives the map a black mark of sot and a trail of smoke travels slowly towards the roof from it. A metallic smell fills the room. But nothing else happens. Maddox's frown only deepens at the sphere as the gun finds its way back into the holster.

He now understand that it might take a bit longer to get to the treasure planet, even how little he likes the thought of another delay. He have thought that once he has the map everything would get into place; he would read the map, he would sail to the planet, end of story. A happen end for Maddox Flint, the richest pirate there is. To be denied this, the dream he have fought so hard to keep alive, by an unreadable map is beyond frustrating.

Suddenly the ship jolts, and there are like a stutter that goes thru the room. Maddox can instantly guess what it is when he feels the ship go eerily still: something have happened to the engine. He quickly grabs the map and puts it in his pocket as his mind reels in the light of what might go on right now. At the time he unlocks the door he have a growing intuition that a part of his crew might be behind this; the engine is in fairly good shape, so for it to fail is a small chance.

Maddox brings out his gun again as his mind settles for the conclusion: it must be a mutiny. What he didn't suspect, though, is that almost the entire crew is now planning against him, not only a small part.

Maddox comes up on the top deck with his gun in hand, and the sight that greets him makes him pause for a second. The small mutiny he have been expecting is nothing compared to the actual size of the crew that stands in front of him, a good half of his crew. The group of members that is now against him have all weapons in their hands while the half that is still with him is bounded, gagged and placed around the masts sitting on the floor.

None of them have noticed him yet. Maddox brings up his gun to the sky and fires a shot, and the high, sudden sound does what it is intended: to attract everyone's attention to the captain and to send the deck into absolute silence.

"You lowlife scum," Maddox calls them after a few seconds. "Here I promise you riches." Even though he will never part with a single piece of it, that lie is the most effective way to motivate these people. "I give you an offer of a lifetime, of a century even. And what do you do? Spoils it like it is nothing."

"We don't spoil it," calls a voice that don't come from the crowd of mutineers. All turns their heads to the source, Maddox just a second later than the rest. When Flint sees who it is he feels a guttural snarl work its way up his throat, as he understands that this must be the leader to the mutiny. But it is not only that, it is the least person he have thought it to be: Long John Silver, the ship's cook.

"We don't spoil anything," Silver continues as he comes closer with a friendly grin on his lips, and it is only a small moment later that the captain understands that John must be the one that have made the engine stop. "We have only set our eyes on a bigger share of the treasure."

"A bigger share of the treasure?" Maddox's eyes narrows at the cook as his grip of his gun tightens. "The share that I have promised you isn't big enough? All of it is mine, as it is my birthright, and to give you only a single coin or the smallest jewel of it I give you in in good character. I could've just claimed it all as mine."

Silver stops a few meters in front of Maddox, and positions himself between the captain and the crew. All the time the grin never leaves him. "But it isn't yours, Flint, and it never have. You have no claim over it until you find it, as the rest of us. Haven't you heard that Nathaniel, your forefather, hid it to have it all to himself, to never share it with anyone?"

Maddox eyes the ursid, wondering exactly how long Silver might have planned this. "I have you know that you couldn't get the map open anyway, John. I have tried. Looks like there is some kind of sequence needed. Maybe I can get it open with what my father have told me." _Maybe_ , Flint thinks, _this will dissuade him. Then I can kill him nice and easy in his bed as he sleeps._

"Don't even try to speak me out of it, Maddox, I've had my mind set for a while. And if it is that hard to get the map open I am fairly certain you have no more clue to how to open it than I do. After all, it took you about 15 years to find it even with your father's ramblings. How long will it take now before any you get new development? 15 years more?"

Maddox glares at the cook, and decides then and there that Silver should have the worst death of all. "Maybe, but the treasure is still MINE!" Flint quickly brings his gun up and shoots. He aims directly at Silver's chest, at his lungs, as there is no worse end in Flint's mind than to drown in your own blood.

Silver is more quick on his feet than Maddox anticipates, though. In the time it takes for the captain to bring up the gun and aim John is able to quickly dash forward, take hold of Flint's hand around the gun and tilt it up into the air before the shot is ever fired. A roar erupts from the mutineers, and they all comes forward to surround Maddox as if on a given signal. He is then quickly overpowered and bound to one of the masts together to the half of the crew that is still loyal. All the way he screams at them, curses them with any and all swears he knows, and only gets quiet when he finds himself securely restrained on the floor.

"Now, to the longboats!" Silver orders, and is obeys within seconds. "We are to leave to the nearest colonized planet!" When the mutineers are on their way John turns to Maddox, a triumphant gleam in his entire face.

"If you think that you can go to treasure planet in only longboats you are the most idiotic person in all the galaxies," Maddox comments with a snarl, his breath heavy from struggling against his former crew.

"Who ever said that we are to go there by longboats only?" asks John with a smile. "We are to get a new ship."

"Then why not take mine?"

"And get mistaken for pirates?" Here Silver pretends to have his feelings hurt and puts a hand over his chest as an overdramatized sadness comes over him. "We are only a honest crew that seeks adventure and treasure, a bunch of traders that is to explore the strange destination of this unknown map." As he gets done with his act he swiftly bends down and searches Flint's pockets for said map, and it doesn't take long before it is found.

"I never expected this from you, Silver, you rotten-."

But before Flint is able to complete his sentence he is interrupts. "Rotten is not what I would describe myself. Slightly corrupt maybe, but not rotten. Would someone rotten do something, lets say, like this?" And from nowhere Silver brings out a knife and throws it at the floor about half a meter from Maddox, the blade digs into the woodwork so that it stands up on its own accord and leaves the handle danger a bit from the force. That earns Silver an odd look from the captain.

"There you have your way out of those ropes," John smiles and points at the knife.

Maddox scowls at it before he looks up at Silver. "How am I to reach it?" he questions.

"You are Maddox Flint, descendant to _the_ great Nathaniel Flint, are you not? You figure it out." John starts to walk away, as a small snicker escapes him. He sees this last interaction as a small prank of sorts, and finds it amusing. Never can he imagine until afterwards how big of a grudge the captain will bear against him.

So, Long John Silver parts from Maddox with the map in hand, together with half of the crew. For Silver a struggle to keep the map for himself and to open it begins, only to lose it after about 20 years to another, named Billy Bones.

Maddox is not a man to sit around and wait for things to come to him, as there is always the uncertainty if things are to come at all that way. No, he's a man of action, a man of taking matters into his own hands. For his whole life he have tried to get back the treasure that his forefather have collected so long ago. For Maddox another hunt take the place of another, but instead for a hunt of a map he now hunts for revenge. He is to take revenge on Silver if it is the last thing he is to do here in life.

* * *

Just a few days ago

"I have finally caught up to you," Maddox says, and he smiles a bit at the sight of Silver. John in turn freeze up at the sound and the sight.

It is a horrible feeling to realize that you might just have met the end of your life and understand that it will surely be painful. It is like you get a cold stone that is put at the bottom of your stomach. "Maddox." The strangled whisper from John is almost too faint to be heard, but Flint is able to catch it.

"You really thought that you could run from me forever," Maddox observes from where he stands. He don't make a move towards the man before him, as he knows that Silver is too shocked at the moment to attempt escape.

"I thought that it was worth a try," John agrees, his voice weak and under surrender. "And I was able to keep out of your way for… how long have it been now?" Silver's eyes flickers down, as he have a hard time to think at the moment. That stone in his stomach seems to only grow.

"More than 20 years," Flint offers.

"Yeah, that's sounds about right."

Maddox only smiles bigger, but it is far from a well-meaning smile. It is hate behind it, and gloat of the worst kind. "Do you know how angry you have made me during these years?"

"Pretty mad, I figure."

"Oh, Silver," Flint warns as he gets a pondering face and starts to approach the ursid, who slightly moves back. "First you steal the map, then you take 20 years on you to get the thing open. Lastly, when you _finally_ get it open and finds the treasure planet, you _destroy_ the entire thing. You have utterly crushed what I wanted most in the whole world, what I searched for in my entire life. If only I could show you how utterly _furious_ I am for this before I kill you."

Maddox pretends for a moment to think out a way to make Silver understand this, before he lights up with an idea. "I think that there actually is a way." Maddox stops, and just as he do there are several people that enters thru the door behind Flint. It turns out to be some of his crewmembers. "I have heard of this cabin boy," he begins. At hearing this Silver gets big eyes and stares right into Flint's face. "I have also heard that you got pretty close to him. I have met up with the few survivors there is of your little trip from a year ago – they send they regards, by the way, right before I burned them to ashes. They even said that you got a soft spot for this brat."

Maddox have never heard of anyone that have died of fright, even though he have heard of the expression. But right there, when he observes his words sink in to the cyborg, there is a short moment of heart-stopping fear. It is especially evident in the eyes, in those shocked and cold eyes, and it really proves another expression that Flint have heard. That the eyes are windows to the soul. Or in this case, to the most intense feelings this ursid feels at this very moment.

"You wouldn't," Silver breathes in almost a whisper. "He's just a pup. Not even you are that cruel." When he sees that Maddox are indeed serious Silver's expression turns angry, mad even, but behind it the fear is still present. The cybernetic eye grows orange, almost on the brink in deep red, and his voice turns into a growl, full of warning. "Don't you dare! That boy have nothing to do with this."

"Oh, I dare," Maddox promise. "You know me, Silver, or at least I thought you did. You know what old Nathaniel Flint used to say? It is something that have survived my father, even though he tried so hard to never have me go in Nathaniel's tracks. It's a saying. _To live is to take action. The bolder the more a gain, but also the more dangerous_."

An un-nerving calm comes over him Flint, and he can see that the worry grows even bigger behind the anger in Silver's eyes. "And the action you did so many years ago was very bold, indeed, and according to myself far too dangerous for you," Flint speaks as he leans in just a little, with much ill intent in both eyes and smile. "I will have my revenge, Silver, and you are the last one for me to kill before my revenge is complete. You are the crown jewel of it, so I think it's worth something special. To have you hurt the worst way possible before I let you slowly burn."

Maddox pauses to let his words sink in. Then another, small idea comes to mind, something that might make it just a little worse for John. "When I come to think on it, why not kill the whole family? Why not put the brat's mother to the gun as well?"

In that moment Silver's mechanic eye turns completely red, and a meaty hand with hard knuckles comes to hit hard on Flint's jawline. The collision leaves Maddox lying on the floor surely a whole meter from where he have been standing with a stinging red mark in his face. He have anticipated this from John, as well as a desperate escape attempt to follow. That is way he have brought several of his crewmembers to hold him down and to bring him to the ship.

But there is one small thing that Flint have not anticipated, something that comes to his attention just a few seconds after he is hit to the floor. An itch that starts on his both arms and that is only small at first, but then just grows in both area and intensity until it covers his whole body as well as impossible to ignore.

When he glances to Silver, who is already in the process of struggling with the other in the crew, and gets a good look at the pouch of a powder in John's hand Maddox realizes what is going on. "Itching powder?!" Flint exclaims, as he struggles to get up as he frantically scratches himself all over. "This can't be! For all the ploys and escape plans, you have to choose the most childish!"

But nothing more he have time to do, as at that time all of the crew are scratching at themselves as well. Before anyone have time to regain themselves Silver is already out the door, and leaves them to be stared at by the others in the bar.

"You idiots!" Maddox screams and with pure willpower stops his scratching and heads after him. "Don't just stand there! He's getting away!"


	5. Chapter 5: Hiding From Flint

Jim sits there, with his back against the cave wall and with Morph on his one shoulder, and tries to process it all. Beside him sits his mother, trying to do the same. Silver is still on the other side of the fire, where he have taken a seat before he have begun to tell his tale of Maddox Flint.

In the end Jim speaks up. "We spent one and a half month on the RLS Legacy together, and you don't tell me about this?"

Silver looks a bit hurt. "Sure I did. When you were sick."

"Yeah, how you have 'heard' rumors about him. 'Oh, they have said this, oh, I have heard that', but not a word that you actually was hunted by the man." Jim glares daggers at the older man. "Why didn't you tell me the whole thing?"

"Heck, would _you_?" Silver shoots back. "It's nothing that people parades around with."

"Now we really need to go to the police," Sarah mumbles.

"Are you out of your mind, or is it something you inherit in the family?" John questions as he puts his hands on his hips. "Jimbo, I see now that it wasn't entirely your fault that you are such a thickhead, it seems that you actually have it in the genes." Then he points at himself in the chest with a thumb, and don't care about the objections of the verdict he just said of the Hawkins genepool from both Jim and Sarah. "I am a pirate, a wanted man. My word will not be believed by anyone in the entire police force."

"What about Amelia, then?" Jim asks, his anger flaring up real good now. "She must believe us."

The answer comes without any hesitation. "She have never trusted me. She have never even liked me, remember? And that it was her ship I took in the first place don't help one bit."

"She wouldn't believe it if you are the one to tell her. If it is me to tell her we have a greater chance for her to believe it."

"Oh, suuure she will," Silver comments with an sarcastic tone and rolls his eyes. Then he becomes serious again. "She will not believe us, never mind who of us that tells her, and that's that!"

"But-" Jim tries, but is cut off.

"NO buts, James! I will not have you try. I have you with me where I can have an eye on you."

"We must at least try," Sarah objects, as she have gained a bit more energy now.

"You don't understand at all, do you? If you are to go out there, Maddox will have you killed. I have told you that he have said it himself, he will have you killed right in front of me."

"And you are just going to hide us away in all eternity, then?" Jim argues. "Let him hunt us until he catches us? Or maybe until one of us drops dead of exhaustion?"

"Until I figure something out!" Silver says.

"Oh, very comforting, Silver," Jim comments with sarcasm. "We are as safe as we ever can be, hiding away and running for our lives. Thanks, Silver, for making things so much better."

Silver's eye turns red at those words, and even when they are all seated and with some distance away it still feels like the older man towers over the boy. "If not for me, you would be dead," Silver growls, his patience fully spent at the moment. "I saved you!"

Jim glares at him for a long moment before he looks away. "I didn't know it justified stupidity," the boy mumbles.

The cybernetic eye goes back to yellow, but the glare don't disappear from Silvers face. "You're not that bright, either."

The rest of the night it gets very quiet in that cave, and none of them gets so much sleep.

* * *

Silver is never going to let anyone hurt his best friend. One of his only friends. It is a lonely life, the pirate life. And he have been a pirate for the bigger part of his life, and he have been so focust of getting to the Flint treasure that he have never realized what he have been missing. He have never let anyone in close before. Now, though, when he have gotten a friend, a friend for life, he will never let anyone hurt him. Not if he have anything to say about it.

When Jim have asked though who was after them Silver really contenplated not to tell them. But that is not what real friend do, to keep secrets from each other. Real friends speaks of these things, of dangers that might hurt them. And Maddox can really hurt people. So in the end, Silver have told the story of Maddox Flint, of how Silver met him and why he is hunting them.

Silver comes to think of the chilling meeting back at the pub, and he remembers the rapid but misbegotten plan that got into his head. It is a plan that he constructed on the top of his head, and he realizes that it is far from a perfect one. To send Maddox on a hunt after a red herring by sending them to the academy. How Maddox didn't know that the kids have leave for the summer is beyond Silver. But it worked.

* * *

Jerry looks long and good at the letter. The news of the attack sounds so trivial when it is told thru letters like this. The newspaper that have landed by the door together with this have more to tell. Jerry knows the most likely reason to this, too; the school tries to not make the situation worse. If they start to spill everything they know, or maybe everything they don't know is more to the truth, it might create unwanted rumors.

 _"Due to an attack from pirate party on the Interstellar Academy and the destruction of it's property we hereby inform you that the start of next term will be postponed with about 2 months. Repairs on the property is planned to start this week. In the meantime, the police have been informed about the attack and are in prursuit._

 _Sincerely,_

 _George Fayday, Principal of the Instestellar Acadamy."_

"Dad, have you heard anything about this from your friends in the fleet," Jerry asks, and looks up from the paper. He and Seymor is sitting at the kitchen table, as the two kids of the small family they are living with plays on the floor. Seymor is at the moment reading the papers, which have a big picture of the destruction on the academy in question _. To think that I and Jim was on the roof of that very building a month ago._

"Not more than what is already said in the news," comes the answer from behind the picture. "No, wait. There have been talk of a possible kiddnapping.

"Who?" wonders Jeremy.

"Something about the owner of an inn and her son. I can't quite remebmer the name of the inn, though."

That makes Jeremy to stand up straight. He comes to automatecally think on his friend Jim, who so happens to be a son of a owner of an inn. "It didn't happen to be called Benbow inn?" he asks in a inquiring tone.

"Yes, that's the name!"

"Look, uncle Jerry," the five-year-old, a girl, cuts of from the floor, and holds up a toy of a boat. "It is my ship, The Rainbow."

"Nice!" Jerry comments and joins the girl on the floor with his legs in crossed, as he doesn't want to give any reason for her to worry. "Who's the captain?"

"You of course, uncle Jerry."

"Even nicer!" Jerry takes the ship that is offered from the girl and starts to slowly swing with it in the air. "RLS Rainbow, setting sail to catch the villain and save the day!" he narrates and takes a deep tone, much like a storyteller. "But who is this villain?"

"Nathaniel Flint!" the child calls with happiness as her two-year-old little brother comes to sit by her side and listen to the story. This is something Jerry does together with the two children often, telling stories where he himself often is the hero and Nathaniel Flint or other famous pirate is the villain.

The thought only reminds Jerry of the current situation at the school and of his friend. He doesn't want to just sit here and do nothing. He wants to help in the hunt of those vile fiends, it is the very reason why he goes to the interstellar academy. "You know what, Lucy? I think that I will not go to with you on the campingtrip."

The girl, Lucy, puts down the toy and looks with big, sad eyes on her big brother. "What!?" she cries with disappointment in her voice. She have wished to really come with Jeremy and his father on the campingtrip, as she liked to play with his uncle so much, and in the end she have been allowed to do so. "Why not?"

Their dad puts down the papper on his lap with a swift motion and looks critically on his son. "Yeah, Jerry, why not?" He, too, seems quite disappointed.

"Becouse I will help to take down the pirates that attacked the school, and save the persons they have kidnapped."

* * *

It is now late at night, and the otherwise dark cave is now almost pitch black. There is still a few, small flames in the fireplace, but they fail to light up more than a few meters away. Jim is awake, and even though he feels exhausted he fails to let himself drift away. Morp is still on his shoulder, deep asleep.

"Silver?"

Jim's voice is small and low, as he don't want to wake up his mother who sleeps just right beside him. The sound of his voice in his own ears is more tentative than it usually is, thank what he likes it to be. He finds it just a tiny bit funny to think that it comes from himself; he who have taken such pride to always try to take care of himself, to try to take the consequences of all his adventures in his earlier life, even how much Sarah speaks her mind to be more careful when the police gets involved.

When only silence meets him at first Jim fears that the older man is already asleep. Maybe Jim have spoken a bit too softly than he have intended. Then there is an "Hm?" from Silver's way. It takes a moment before Jim speaks again, and when he do damns himself for sounding as small as he does.

"Thank you," he says. "Thank you for coming for me and mum." He halts to look over where he knows Silver lies, even though it is impossible to see in the darkness beyond the warm shine of the fireplace. The boy hopes to see if there is any immediate reaction, maybe to pinpoint the yellow light of Silver's one eye or anything, but there is none. Neither is there any sound from the older man. "Maybe I should have told you sooner, but... with the inn burning down again and all this… there have not really been any good time, you know. You didn't need to come, but you did anyway."

Jim halts again, but it's not to see Silver's way. It is to try to find anything more to say. He feels like he should be more, there is not every day that he gets rescued, but he have no idea what those words are. The little he have said already, even though it is all he can come up with, feels just so hollow in comparison to Silver's action. "I am sure mum feels the same, deep down," is the only more thing the teen is able to think of in the end. "So, thanks. I owe you one. We both owe you."

A moment of silence comes and goes, then another one. So many moments goes by that Jim starts to think that Silver really are asleep. Then, just as the boy is to turn to his side so that his back is towards the open space in the middle of the cave, Silver speaks.

"You can't believe how frightened I was when Maddox came up to me in that pub," the older man lets Jim know, with a voice almost too low to be heard. "He was the one that burned away my leg and my arm and intended to continue with my whole body for the sake of a stolen map. You are bound to fear a man like that."

The teen moves a bit to get more comfortable and strains to hear. The older man's voice is monotone and numb, and it is hard to hear if Silver is frightened or not at the moment. "But when he told me that he was going after you I turned cold," Silver continues. "It is something that I have never experienced before, not even when he burned me." There is a short pause, and Jim can hear very faint how Silver moves just a little. The teen can see a few glimmers in the darkness where Silver lies, and realizes the second after that it is the light from the fire that is reflected from the cyborg's metal hand. "I had come to term with my fate when he and I met in that pub. I admit that it is a strange feeling."

Jim tries to pinpoint the yellow light from the cybernetic eye, but it's not there. It's something that feels strangely sad, not to see that light. As if it is a part of Silver's being, and to not see it is like he is not there at all. But John is there, in a dark corner of a cave, spilling out his fears.

"There is a first time and place for everything, Jimbo, but I wish that I didn't have to live thru that moment. As of that moment, that dreadfully long second, I realize that the best friend I ever had might die, and that it would be my fault. That might just be the real end of me, more so than any burning to my hands and feet or any gunfire to my old heart. And Flint knew it perfectly well."

After that it grows quiet for a long moment. Jim's heart grows a little warmer to hear how much Silver cares of him; it almost rivals Sarah's motherly love. But that's how it is to have a father, isn't it. But the boy's stomach grows cold nevertheless, as the news are grave.

"I told them that they could find you at the academy before I escaped in one of their longboats. I knew that you have leave for the summer, so I lied to gain something of a headstart. They were dumb enough to just take me on my word and not hold up to look up if it was true." Here Jim hears that Silver moves a bit, and the boy can see the faint glimmer of the cybernetic eye in the dark. John have turned to look at him. First Jim is glad to see that recognizable shining eye, but that feeling runs slowly away as the boy somehow sees just how sad it looks. "I guess you might have a longer summer than you though, if we ever get away from this mess. Who's to say how long we can run away, or if we are to even come back."

At the last part Jim speaks up. "So you know that we can't just keep going like this."

"Yes. But I have no idea what else we can do. We are three, while Maddox have a whole ship of pirates that holds his back. We have no choice but to run."

"Amelia can help us," Jim says instantly without thinking.

"She will help with Flint and his crew, and put every one of them behind bars," Silver agrees, but even so there is doubt in his voice. "Then she will throw me in as well, and ensure that I get to the gallows. It will just be the same as to go to the police."

The boy knows that it is true now when he hears it, and he is unsure if any explanation to the captain would change it. "But if only I and mum gets to her, and tells her of Flint? You can just get us to her and then snuck away."

"Maybe it would work," Silver admits, although reluctant. Jim knows that the old pirate is a bit unsure to get near any people of the law, especially when there is a price over his head. The whole adventure with the treasure planet have ensured that. "Do you know where she is?"

Jim halts a bit at the question, as he don't know if the answer is anything John want to hear. "Back on Montressor," he says slowly. The boy hears a low breath from the other man, and can hear on it that prediction is true.

"We will not go back," Silver declares. "Flint would capture us for sure. He is surely heading for us right now, from the direction of Montressor."

They both think hard on the matter. "We can look for a ship from the fleet, any ship at all, and tell them about this," offers Jim.

"And would they believe you as quick as Amelia would?" John wonders. "For them you are only a pup that might just want to pull a prank. See it from their point of view: why else would someone like yourself sneak onboard one of their ships."

"You can't know that," Jim insists. "Besides, I can tell them that I am going to the interstellar academy, they are bound to believe me then."

Silver starts to get inpatient with the boy. "How long will it take them to check it? Maddox can strike anytime."

"Attack a ship of the fleet?" Jim is unsure if any pirate even dares to attack the interstellar fleet, that would be like a sign of war. And no pirate is to ever win in such a war. "He wouldn't."

"He would," Silver shakes his head grimly. "I know him, Jimbo. He will do anything to get his revenge. It is the only thing he lives for now. Once he have gotten it, he don't care what happens. As long as he have seen me suffer, and then kills me, he might as well put his own gun to his head and fire."

Jim thinks long and hard on it before he speaks again. "But he will not have any chance, even against one ship from the fleet. He will only get arrested. Isn't it that we want?"

"In an all-out attack, yes. Even though it is just stupid to attack a military ship at all, Flint would never attack it head on. He will surprise them, get you and then bolt." Here Jim opens his mouth to retort how wrong that is bound to be, but Silver cuts him of before the boy even can get his first syllible out. "Ah, ah, ah, don't come here and tell me that it would be unlikely for him to succeed. You should not underestimate someone as determined as Maddox. He will most surely find a way."

"Can't I just tip the police about him, then?" Jim asks, a bit tired of hearing Silver shoot down all his ideas. "Let them know that Flint is on our tracks."

"They will then get you into an interrogation room first to get questioned, if you want them to take you seriously. Then Flint will attack and take you. He have a bigger chance to succeed to against regular law enforcers."

"But what are we to do, then," Jim sighs and gives the discussion up. "What else can we possibly do?"

"The only thing we can do now is to just run."

The teen gives of somewhat of a glare towards Silver, even though how tired he feels right now. "And how long are we to do that? Or rather, how long can we do that?"

Here Silver seems to get numb again, and gets an even lower voice. Jim can almost not hear the last few words for the night. "Until something else comes to me."

* * *

Amelia stands up from her seat at the round table in the oval room that is inside one of the acadamie fleet's bigger ships. To her left and right sits other captains that have been assigned to the same task as her. They have all come with their ships to the spaceport that is right outside of Montressor known as Crescentia, together with her ship, the RLS Legacy.

"So," starts Amelia. "We all know why we are here; to capture the pirate captain known as Maddox Flint. First thing first, what have we learned from the forensic investigation?"

"The burned bodies have all been identified," answers one of the other captains. "And none of them appears to belong to the owner of the in, Sarah Hawkins, or that of her son, James."

 _Thank god for that,_ is Amelia's first thought, and nearly sighs of relief. But then she realizes something; if they aren't amongst the dead, then they are captured by the pirates. _Or, God forbid, that they have joined them._ She shakes her head at the last thought. Never that Jim goes together with pirates. Then she grows unsure. _Although, he became best friends with one._

"Then they must have been captured and taken away by this Maddox Flint," another captain says, and declares some of Amelia's thoughts. "Now, how to track them. They were last seen at-"

There is a ruckus right putside the door that puts the discussion of, and in thru the door comes a young lad, strapped in an interstellar fleet uniform, which are fighting a pair of quards. Everyone in the room stands up, ready for trouble, just as the trio comes storming in.

"What is this?" demans Amelia.

"I'm sorry, madam," puffs one of the gurads as he tries to drag the boy out of the room. "This maniac wants entry to this discussion. We tried to stopp him, but-"

"I am here to help," the lad cuts of. "So take your hands off me so that I can speak."

Amused by the sight Amelia signs for the guards to stop. They do, and takes a step back from the boy. The young man brushes himself of and then stands in attention. He looks handsome in the face, with only a small stubb on his cheeks and lower jaw. "Who might you be?" Amelia asks him.

"Jeremy D. Walkup, ma'am," he answers in an military tone.

"I take it that you are in the interstelllar fleet?" Amelia observes from the clothes.

"Not yet, but I aim to be. I am still in the interstellar academy."

"So, you are not yet fully trained, but you still wish to help in this matter?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Amelia almost laughs out loud. To come barging in into a discussion such as this, in the belief that he might be of assistance, and not even have finished the academy is just humorus. "Don't you find that just a tad - how am I to put this? - a tad insufficient? Do you even know what this discussion is about?"

"To catch the pirates that attacked the interstellar academy."

"Nothing else?" she smiles.

At this this boy, Jeremy, deflates a little. "I know that a certain James Hawkins and his mother was kidnapped."

"Mostly everyone knows this by now," Amelia waves of. "There are enought rumours about the whole thing that it can fill upp a pub for several weeks." This seems to deflate the lad even more. "And what can you add to this discussion, that none of the others - higly trainted captains, mind you - can't suffice?"

At this Jeremy deflates completely. "Nothing."

"Then I assure you that you aren't needed in here," Amelia concludes shortly.

Jeremy looks dissapointed. But then he brights up, as a thought comes to his mind. "You are captain Amellia, aren't you? Of RLS Legacy?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"I have heard all about you. I am friends with Jim, you see, and he have told me all about your venture with treasure planet."

That takes Amelia a little on the bed, and she puts her ears forward in a hint of interest. "Are you, mayhaps, a fellow student of James'?"

"Yes, we are in the same class. I would like to help you find him."

Amelia looks at this lad from head to toe; to barge into a discussion such as this to ask if he can save a fellow friend is admirable. A bit on the excessive side, but still admirable. She gives it a thought if she would let such a headstrong young man come with them on the search of Sarah and James, and in the end she decides she can let him get a chance. "Meet me in my quarter on my ship after thsi discussion is over," she orders him.

* * *

The next few days is one big ravaging of travels in different cargo holds and small scuffles on tiny freighters and other ships. But because none of them have any money to give they have to either work as long as they stay or just hides onboard without the captain's knowledge. Thanks to Sarah, though, they go on the first option more than the second, but when that don't work for some reason or other Silver is not late to jump on the last option, much to the displeasure of Sarah.

"You are making us thieves!" she have exclaimed the first time John have argued to hitchhike without any permission at all.

"No, only tramps," he have only answered with irritation from meeting resistance from her on every corner. She have not been the only one to struggle against him, either, as Jim is also on him concerning every choice and action Silver take.

"We must tell someone," the teen thinks.

"And risk to draw more attention to us. I have told you, Jimbo, we are running from a maniac here. Others will only be in the way, and there is no-one I can trust."

"There is Amelia and Delbert!" Those are two named that Silver thinks he have heard far too many times already.

"That I trust, Jimbo. They don't trust me, so why should I trust them?"

"Because I trust them. And you trust me, right?"

Of course Silver trust Jim, but the old cyborg is not sure that it could be enough. John don't trust the Dopplers the way he trust Jim. And as the ursid have said, why trust them if they don't trust him. They think of him as a pirate, and they are true to do so. He have been a pirate, he is a pirate, and he will always be a pirate. Although the reason he have had once to first be a pirate is now gone, as treasure planet is destroyed, he is still very well still considered as one.

That is exactly the thing which Silver replies with to Jim at that. "When they see me the only thing they see is a pirate. Someone to be put in a cell, to be hanged. Hanged, Jimbo. Someone like Amelia will jump on the chance to have me arrested as soon as she sees me. Be a pirate once and you always will be, especially in the eyes of the law. Be wise and remember that, Jimbo."

With Amelia I know I certainly will be hanged, but this way I might at least have a chance at life.

Once, when they are on the move again, Jim and Sarah tries to go and tell some prefect about the situation. It have been when Silver have been forced to discuss a bit more than normal to the captain which have a cargo ship John wants to go with. Jim and Sarah have tried to sneak away behind his back, but the cyborg have seen them just in the nick of time. Silver gets to them before they get any chance, and with one firm hand on each mouth the cyborg successfully drags them with him as they struggle to get free.

"Don't force me to tie you down to the floor," he threatens when they keep struggling and starts to argue against him again. "I have told you not to tell anyone."

For four more days Silver have dragged the two of Jim and Sarah on smaller journeys on different ships and hidden in remote locations. All the while Sarah grieves and mourns for the loss of her home and living for a second time, too sad most of the time to argue. And with her sullen Jim. In the end she have, however, gotten enough.

"I refuse to go along with this anymore," she lets Silver know, and stomps her foot down as emphasis. At the time they are hiding in an old abandoned wooden house, in the suburb of a bigger town that steams with life. "We have scurried from one corner of the neighborhood to the next, like rats with nowhere to go. We are hunted by a criminal that only you say are after me and Jim as well as yourself."

"Didn't you see how they attacked your inn?" Silver asks with anger. "I am telling you, they want both you and me."

"That they only did to get to you. All this is your fault!"

"My fault?!" Silver asks with a loud voice and points at his own chest. "You are not a little (FRÄCK)! As I don't seem to come thru to you, Jimbo might."

"What?" is everything Jim is able to get out at the mention of his own name.

"You bealive me, right?" Silver turns to him. "You said as much back at the inn. So tell her!" With that John shoves the teen over towards Sarah.

"Oh, don't you bully him into taking your side," warns Sarah and waves her index finger at Silver. "Now you listen well on me, and you are to do exactly as I say. You are going to let us leave. Right. Now."

"You sure are one irritating, loudmouthed woman," John observes with a low voice, but it is not short on warning. Thereafter his voice grows loud. "None of you are to take a single foot outside the door of this house."

"This 'house' - if you can really call it that, it's on the verge of collapse - don't even have a door to begin with. It's just an open doorway!"

Is there any need to say that this is the last violation? All three of them are exhausted of the constant running, from the fear of the pirates that are following them and that their interests are always going towards different directions.

"If I say to stay put, we will stay put," Silver orders Sarah, as he points to the ground. "Now put that but of yours down on the floor, be quiet and rest."

She opens her mouth to say something more, but is stopped by her son. He holds a hand up to silence her, and then beacons her to sit down. In her anger she refuses, and lets Jim know. "Don't interrupt, Jim, I am trying to get us home and away from this lunatic," she says and points to Silver.

"Me?" John booms. "Lunatic? As far as I can see I am the sanest person in the room!"

"I will take care of it, mum," Jim says and waves her away. "Believe me, now go and rest." And he intends to take care of this, too, once and for all, or they might just keep running for the rest of their lives. He is now also ready to put his foot down.

Sarah sighs in defeat, her shattered determination diminished, and it is with half gratified, half unbelieving eyes that Jim watches her turn and walk away. This is the woman who have raised him by her own after her husband got up and just left, when Jim have been lost and have been outside just to create more problems for her. She is one of the strongest Jim knows, and it is scary to see her this broken, even more broken than she have been back then.

He forces himself to get his head together and turns to Silver. Jim will make an end to this circus. "Silver, please, listen to us," Jim begins. "We can't just keep running like this. We need help."

"Who wants to help someone like me?" John looks right at the boy in such an unbelieving anger that he surely have never shown the teen before. "I'm a pirate, Jimbo! If we go to the authorities I will hang, however much you explain things. That is what a life devoted to crimes comes to in the eyes of them."

"Don't you have any friends to help us, then?"

Silver throws his arm out. "If you haven't noticed it, there are almost none in the whole under world that is willing to help if they don't get anything in return. All pirates are egotistical."

Jim can't believe that. Not all pirates have only themselves in the center, and he knows the perfect example. "You aren't," he tells John. The older man don't really calm one single bit, as the teen have hopes he would, but instead gives somewhat of a glare.

"I guess I'm a poor excuse of a pirate, then."

Jim gets really angry now, as all he wants is for this to end. "You will not get hanged, Silver, I promise. I will not let them."

"Oh," John throws out with a short ironic laugh. "What a great guardian I have, a pup who don't even know how to hold a sword right."

"Sure I do!"

"Don't make me laugh, Jimbo, I'm not really in the mood. I remember how you held that sword against me last year, and it was not such a frightening as you wanted it to be. You couldn't even have killed a mouse the way you held that sword."

Even though Silver's words stung a little Jim forces them out of his head for the moment. Even how much John will scrutinize the boy Jim is serious in one thing: to get this running over with and have Silver alive in the end. "You will not hang. You might sit in a cell for a good while, but I will see to it that you don't get killed."

"'A good while'? I will sit in a cell for 'a good while'? You mean my whole life, don't you! What a great compromise."

"Alright!" Jim throws his hands into the air. "You will be in surely for your whole life. But isn't it better than the other option? Do you really, honestly, want to run for all your life, if it now is from the police, the fleet or this Maddox Flint?"

Silver looks reluctant to answer, and he really is. The right answer on the question is not the answer he really want to give. "No," he finally answer.

The fight have escaped out of them now, and the argument is on its way to end. The two of them are quiet for a while, before Jim speaks up. "I'm going in the interstellar academy, remember. I have a good idea now on how things work now." His features in his face softens. "I will make sure that you will not hang, and if I can reduce the time in jail for you I will jump at the chance." And it is the truth; Jim wish to see Silver safe. They are, after all, father and son in everything but blood. "I promise."


	6. Chapter 6: Lieutenant Kinsley's Past

**This will probably be the sgortest chapter. And this is as far as I have come so far. I have no idea how long the next chapter is going to be, of if it will be the last. But it will at least be the beginning of the finale.**

* * *

Four days the search have gone by, and for four days Amelia and the others have gone here and there in the hunt for the pirates. There seems to be no real logic to their course. They go here and there, like in a zigzag pattern, between different locations in the galaxy. As if they don't have any real goal. Neither are they stealing things, only destroying different buildings. It is like if they are searching for something, or someone.

Jeremy seems to be a quite handy cadet, to Amelias big joy and surprise, and is usefull enought as a crewmember. He aims to do his best, and that is more than Amelia ever have expected of him from his initial presentation. Maybe he barged in like he did to make sure that his friend should get help.

To have the ability to care for his friends that much is a good quality. But to barge in like he did also screams of a headstrong nature that might just be something degrading to his overall preformance. He have said that he strives to be a captain. Amelia might just see that come true, if the lad works as hard as he does, even though Amelia have a heard time to picture it.

* * *

Silver seems to get more and more anxious, and he also gets more delirious. Jim suspects that he doesn't sleep that very well, if not at all. He is also increasingly worried over their situation, as he seems to believe that their followers are gaining on them.

For four days they have gone from place to place, hiding and running from the danger called Maddox Flint. Silver starts to exhaust the places to go. He knows many hiding places in the galaxy, but now that list is soon coming to an end. He can only do that much with what he have, and that he can't do more haunts him in the night.

In the months after the treasure planet he have gotten use of his few friends, lieutenant Kinsley. He don't know really what have become of Kinsley, as Silver haven't heard from him in a while, but he is pretty sure he is dead. "A pretty strange pirate," Silver says about him to Jim and Sarah. "Had a conscious, that one, which not many pirates have. A strange story he also have, how he got to be the lieutenant to that Maddox Flint." And so, the story of Kinsley is told to the two.

* * *

The burning of the second crewmember from Silver's band

About 19+ years before the movie

To be burned alive is a fate of the cruelest kind, and to apply it on someone else requires someone with the cruelest hearts. To have it done again and again on several different people only shows that this person might never change. That the cruel heart might never come to be of purer fibre, or get bettter in any way.

This is something Kinsley learns all too well as he hears on the screams of the second burn victim. Drenched in gasoline, the burning man turns and twists in a desperate try to escape the jaws of death. The lieutenant shivers a bit, but not from cold. It is fear. Fear that this to be a fate he might share if he steps out of line. But at the same time he feels and shares the pain that plays upon the victim's face when their bodies takes aflame. He feels compassion to the burned husk and ash that he knows are the only things that will be left.

He feels it all.

"Mr. Kinsley," Maddox calls a few meters away, unmoved by the dying man's last sounds of life even though he stands closer and have a better view. The lieutenant gulps before he comes closer.

"Yes, captain."

"How are we on the whereabouts on the next target? Mr. Betsey, I believe."

"I have asked around about him. It is said he is heading back to his hometown."

"Hmph. Home?" The answer seems to amuse Flint a bit. "Apparently he have fled to the spot where he feels the safest. Home to hide behind his family, no doubt. This one have at least the gall to face me head on." At the last sentence Maddox nods to the man on the ground in front of him, now finally still. "If they all just have stuck together they might have stopped me, those weaklings."

"Most of them are still together, it seems, captain," Kinsley informs.

Maddox attacked Silver's band the first time about three weeks ago. It have never been intended to kill a lot of them, but to kidnap one crewmember. Maddox have wanted any of them except for Silver really, and burn whoever that happen to be as a first victim. Maddox wants to save Silver for last. After that three of Silver's group departed on their own. The one lying on the ground before Kinsley and Maddox now are one of them.

"Good," Maddox comments. "I want you to concentrate solemnly on them now. Trace their every move, keep me updated on every rumor and gossip. If they happen to dock somewhere, send a crewmember to spy on them. I take care to track the two other strays." With that he turns and walks away, with a solemn face and gleaming eyes.

Kinsley follows suit, but not before he shares a look with the crew that stands nehind him. They look as afraid as he is, all in fear of being the next victim and to weak to speak out about their own views. As Kinsley follows Maddox he wears an worried expression. Where will this end? How many will suffer the fate like the man they just have burned?

They leave the charred body behind, with small flames still burning at it and with smoke steaming up to the sky. The screams have died of, and the movements of thelimbs have ceased. Death have come upon him, and have relieved him of his pains and sorrows.

* * *

The buildup to the fight, Flint VS Silver

About 17+ years before the movie

"Finally it is Silver's turn," Flint smiles. "Today my revenge will be complete."

All 15 crewmembers of Silver's band have now been burned, and for the last month Maddox have chased down the leader, John himself. And so Flint have wanted and looked forward to this. He is to finally get his hands on the map again. All of this is clearly visible on the exited gleam of Maddox's eyes, a small glitter that Kinsley have learned to fear and associate so close with the burnings.

They have followed Silver with a quite desolate planet, with mostly rocky formations. It have though its patches of green forests and rushing rivers, and with them are the small settlements and colonies. They are in a remote part of any civilization, the outer rim of governments. They have to solve their own differences and disputes, and with a smaller city councils of the elders most crime are taken care of. Even so the inhabited places on the surface seems to flourish, although the people there have hard lives mostly either out on farms or in mines. The most dedicated works themselves into an early grave.

A perfect, isolated place to kill a traitor on, according to Flint.

"Now, it seems that Silver have hid in a farmhouse in the edge of this town, captain," Kinsley informs and points at a map is shown of a specific area of the planet. It's not like Silver have a lot to choose from when it comes to hiding, he have been shot down in a longboat and landed on a field not far from the farm.

Kinsley and Flint are down on the planet not that far away from the buildings in question, they can even see them in the distance. They are surrounded by half a dousing from the crew, and the rest are closer around the farm where they can keep an eye on John. "We have the place surrounded, so he have nowhere to run," Kinsley continues. "If we take four men and-"

"They will remain outside," Maddox cuts him short. "I will take care of him myself. Just keep the men ready with the gasoline and the matches."

"What are you..." The words flows out into the sand when the lieutenant looks up at Maddox, as Kinsley gets the notion that he don't really want to know what Flint plans by the dangerous look in the captain's face. That gleam is back, and it shines brighter than ever before.

"I like to have my fun with him first," Maddox answers anyway, and smiles.

* * *

Right after Silver's escape from Maddox

About 17+ years before the movie

The 16:th burning seems to be the lucky break. After two years and 15 successful, harrowing burnings later, it seems that Maddox have made his first slip. It have been Silver's turn to burn, and also for the return of the map to Maddox's hands. But it have all been a failure. The ursid have only been burned by half of his body, and he still have the sphere. And Kinsley have never been so frightened.

Maddox have gone from screaming and cursing up a storm as he walks this way and that to just sit down on the floor with a threatening silence. To have Silver killed would have been the end of his revenge, it can even be seen as his ultimate revenge, on the half of the crew that mutinied. And to have that robbed from him after all the weeks of planning and wanting it, Flint throws a tantrum that can be compared to the youngest of children.

On several occasions the crew have feared to be burned themselves from the glares their captain have given them. Three days it have gone since Silver got away, and Flint have been too angry to sleep since then as the crew have been too frightened to get any rest as well. Three long days and three long nights of this, and Kinsley is not sure of how much longer he can take it.

On the fourth day there is finally a change, but if it is for the better is to be seen.

"KINSLEY!" Maddox calls, and the lieutenant hurries to appearance at the captain's side. They both see that the other have big, dark patches under the eyes, but Maddox don't count it as any of his worries.

"Yes, captain."

"Silver must be in the area, he can't have gone far with the injuries I have inflicted. By now he must be in some kind of medical care if he have any hopes to survive. We split the crew between us. You check if he is in care of any privet doctor, and I check with every hospital and medical center."

* * *

Kinsley's visit to an injured Silver

About 17+ years before the movie

Kinsley feels numb over his entire body at the sight. It have begun by his heart and just... spread. Without stop, without hesitation and without mercy, just like a certain pirate that he knows and fears. The numb shell that is his heart feels empty, and only that is strange to experience. There have always been feelings there in his heart, guiding him together with the logic of his brain.

In front of him lies John Silver in a bed of white bed sheets, almost ghostly white, with his entire right side wrapped in bandages. Stumps are the only things left of his right leg and right arm, a sight that Kinsley find that he can't look away from for a very long minute. _They can barely be called stumps._

Silver have still not stirred from his quest's presence, and with a look of peaceful sleep he lies there without any movement. The doctor have told Kinsley that the anesthetic still should have affect, but that it will go away around now.

"Do you happen to be a friend of his?" the doctor have wondered. A kindhearted man, that have taken care of Silver out of pity. He will surely pay a heavy price if Maddox gets his hands on him.

"Acquaintances," Kinsley have told him. "Only met him a few times before." It is the truth; Kinsley have joined Maddox's crew about 20 years back, only a few months before half of them made mutiny. So the two of them have met, they have even shared an entire conversation together once.

"To bad," the doctor have told him. "Everyone needs a friend during hard times. God knows that this bastard needs it." Kinsley can't agree more. And Silver, even though he is a pirate, isn't worth this. Is anyone?

Maddox don't know about this visit. Kinsley himself didn't know about it until he decided to make it only yesterday. It have been little like a mad idea that just popped into his head, once he suddenly and by chance found out where the ursid is. The captain have ordered him to find Silver, and it have been implied that the lieutenant is to report it immediately. That the ursid is lying here have yet to reach Flint's ears. It have even been a lucky shoot that the half of the crew Kinsley been assigned not have found out.

What might be the reason for Kinsley visiting, then? It is that he is tired. Tired to see people get burned in front of him, tired to be too afraid to do something about it, tired of this whole farce with finding treasure planet. To find treasure planet have been the reason Kinsley joined Flint's crew in the first place.

To even see treasure planet is something Kinsley have given up hope on, as, after everything he have seen now, it seems as something trivial and meaningless now. He don't really want to see people get hurt for the prospect to get rich. _Flint is not even burning these people for treasure planet, really. It is for revenge._

So Kinsley's intention now is to try to help keep Silver alive, as lives is closer to Kinsley's heart than promised of wealth and treasures will ever be. And if it means to keep the map out of Flint's hands while doing so... Kinsley smiles a bit at the idea. He sees it a bit as revenge for all those lives Maddox have taken.

As the lieutenant steps closer to Silver's bed he swears to himself that no-one else will get killed by the hands of Flint.

* * *

Kinsley starts to cover for Silver

About 17+ years before the movie

Kinsley observes his captain as Maddox wanders to and fro, angry and perplexed at the result of the search of Silver.

"You sure that you checked with every privet doctor on this miserable planet?"

"Yes, captain," Kinsley confirms. "I have even checked with every veterinarian and pharmacy. There is no sign of him."

"This is unbelievable!" Flint stops to glare at him. "How have he been able to get away?"

Kinsley takes care to look thoughtful, and what he says next he do with a voice of great thought. "I think that I've heard just in passing of a smaller caravan with medical supplies and a few doctors. They were to head to an important annual conference, where different institutions share and discuss the resent year's strides in medicine."

Maddox gets a similar look. "Of course! It is obvious that he will take that way out. He gets treatment and escort of the planet on the same time." He sends a glare to Kinsley, and a hint of impatience gets into him. "Did you overhear what their heading are?"

"Yes." Although it is a lie that Silver is on any caravan on his way of world, it is not a lie of the existence of the caravan itself. To his big luck there is a real caravan of medicine and doctors on their way to an annual meeting which he have overheard in a marketplace. Though he have no plans to tell Maddox how things are really standing, Kinsley only want to throw Flint of for a few weeks to give Silver a few weeks of peace and quiet to heal his wounds.

At the fact that Kinsley is not moving from his spot, Flint gets even more impatient. "Well? Why are you just standing there? Get going and have the ship intercept with that caravan."

"About that, captain, I have been thinking. I wonder if it isn't for the better to let Silver go."

Maddox grows understandably angry, and his tone grows cold. "What are you saying, Kinsley?" Flint eyes him closely up and down. "You have not decided to go traitor on me as well?"

Genuine fear course thru Kinsley, and he only hopes that it adds realism to his words. "No, no, no, captain," he calms the captain and brings up his hands in a well-meaning gesture. "Hear me out first, please." Flint eyes him one more time before he gives a nod for the lieutenant to continue. "I think that we should let him go because of the map, captain."

Here a more suspicion look comes over Maddox, so Kinsley is quick to continue. "Think about it. It have been proven too hard to open it before, so even if you have it you can't go to the treasure planet, anyway. You would need to spend time, strength and resources to have it open. So why not let Silver do it for you while you just follow him and his progress in the distance?"

As Flint listens he takes on a more thoughtful appearance. When Kinsley quiets the captain takes a finger to his chin, and looks like he really contemplates about it. Maddox turns his back to the lieutenant and takes a few slow steps away, before he turns again and walks just as slowly back. Kinsley can almost hear how the gears turns in the captain's head.

"It would save you a lot of trouble," Kinsley tentatively shoots in after a few seconds of silence. Flint waves a hand at him to sign that he want a small moment longer to think on it.

After a few more seconds Maddox have decided. "You might be onto something there," he encourages. "Good man." It goes a few more seconds for Maddox to think on what to do next before he speaks again. "We will pose as a friendly ship to that caravan, and offer them some protection as we 'just happens' to be heading the same way as them. We plant a few crewmembers in the area of that conference to keep a lookout on what they say and do as a few of our longboats observes their ships. Then we 'just happens' to go along again on their way back."

"I suspect Silver will not leave his bed," Kinsley comments. "So we might not see much, if anything, of him."

"I know that!" Maddox says, a bellow that comes out a bit stronger than he intended it to be.

The lieutenant recoils a bit at that, but don't cover back. He have promised himself that he will see to there will not be more bloodshed for the damned treasure planet, and he stands by it even when he feels particularly scared now. "But have you thought on that they might just not say anything of him at all?"

That sends the captain into silence. "…what do you mean?"

"You know, doctors and their oaths. They have one called the oath of silence."


	7. Chapter 7: The End Is Near

Silver, Jim, Sarah and Morph walks into the room with tired strides. They have been up all night and have walked the last few miles to this small, tumble-down and abandonded house that is very aside from any civilization, on a planet that barely have any people on it to begin with. They fall down on the floor almost immediately of exhaustion.

The house have only one big room, with no furniture and with a big wodden beam in the middle that holds up the roof. It is close to falling in anyway, as it is runned-down and well used. There is a thick layer of grime and dust on the floor, the company that is now occupying the house don't really mind in their current state.

"You two go ahead and sleep," Silver says and takes a seat by the door. "I Take the first watch."

"But you must be as tired as us," Sarah comments. "You will not be able to stay awake for more than a few minutes, I bet."

"Nah, I can keep myself on alert for more than that. I have been awake for more than this without suffering more of it."

Neither Sarah nor Jim gives any more objections, as they both feel deathly tired. They sit tightly together, with Morph on Jim's shoulder, and falls asleep almost instantly, and snores away. Silver observes the two with weary eyes. What lengths he goes to protect this boy and his mother. They have surely crossed a fifth of the galaxy on this short time, and it is all becouse of Silver's wish to protect his best friend.

He must have gone mad.

* * *

After a few hours there is a sound, and John jerks awake. He must have gone out even when he have strained himself to keep awake. He looks around to seek after the source of the sound, but can't find it at first. He is just to disregard the sound when he hears it again; the unmistakable sound of a longboat closing in. Silver shoots up and runs over to Jim, Sarah and Morph, and shakes them to life.

"James!" Silver calls. "Take your mother and run!"

The boy does as he is told, and helps his mother up and thereafter gets her to run towards the window in the persumtion that Silver will run away as well. Morph, babbling in a panic, follows suit. John, however, doesn't run, but instead faces the doorway where he knows Flint are to appear in. Silver changes his cybernetic hand to the built-in gun, and gets himself ready.

He have now been running from Maddox for more than 20 years. Silver have stolen, lied, cheated and deceived to get hold on a map to his big dream during those years as well. This last year, however, he have only been running from his old life. Now he will finally stand up against his hunter, and try to defeat him even though he might die trying, all to save a boy more worth than any treasure in the entire world.

Maddox Flint enters. Silver aims and shoots at him, but the target quickly ducks back and gets away unscaved back behind the wall. Then Flint quickly comes out again, faster than Silver is able to react on, and shoots back. It is not at Silver, however. The shot instead hits the beam, that is standing in the middle of the room and holds up the roof, behind John. The wood explodes where it is hit.

Jim helps his mother thru the window as this is going on behind him. As she is good thru the window he throws a look over his shoulder as he puts a foot thru the window and stops to an halt at what he sees. He is just able to see when beam is snatched loose and falls, taking Silver with it.

"Silver!" Jim calls and turns to run to the older man's help, but is hindered in his tracks when the gun is aimed straight at him. Morph, who is about to get thru the window, stops as well when it hears the name and turns to see what have bevcome of its old master and friend.

"Don't move," Flint orders him with an unmoving expression and aims his gun at the boy.

Silver is still alive, and at this the teen takes a relieved sigh, but John is now pinned down to the floor under the big wooden beam. His cybernetic arm is pinned down as well at his side, but he is still able to move his organic hand freely.

"What the heck are you doing?" Silver is able to get out. "Why didn't you run, like I told you?"

"And leave you?"

"Yes, and leave me."

Maddox aims at Silver on the floor. "Quiet, both of you," Flint orders. Maddox aims at Jim again, ready to shoot, but the pirate don't look away from Silver. "I don't get you, Silver," Flint says. "I remember you to dream about that treasure. It was your life, the goal with every breath you take. That you seem to care more about this boy, to lose that lifelong dream for him, is beyond me. We were so much alike, you and I."

"We were alike in the sense that we were both driven pirates which had a lifelong dream, yes," John agrees with a deep breath. "We even had the same dream: to get our hands on Nathaniel's big trove. But that is where our similarities ends. Where I try to avoid hurting people, you rather kill before asking any questions."

"I see that as a weakness on your part."

Silver looks up sharply. "Is it? You look on others with much suspicion, and it have gone a long time since you trusted anyone. How have that worked out for you this far? I have the sense to avoid trusting certain people, like you, but I have also dared to give it to those who earned it. Like that boy." Here John nods to Jim. "I don't see it as a weakness. When you trust someone, and treats him or her well, you will get trust back. You will not be alone. You will have someone that is willing to help you, and that you can help back."

Maddox scowls at that. "Someone to drag you down, to stand in your way. Someone to go behind your back, like Kinsley."

Silver frowns at Flint's words. "Kinsley helped me. Can't you understand that? He helped me, even though he knew that if you found out he would be as good as dead. He trusted me, he was a friend to me, to the point that he dared to put himself in danger. For me, Flint. Not for himself, but for me."

"He was an idiot."

Silver takes that hard. "He wasn't an idiot! The only idiotic thing he ever did was to join your crew."

Maddox shakes his head. "I doesn't understand you, Silver. Friends is for weaklings. Real power comes in fear. If people fear you, you are in power."

Silver sighs from his spot on the floor under the beam, and he feels that it starts to hurt when he breathes. "You ask me what makes that boy so special? It is that I trust him - no, it is even more than that. I love him. I love him like the son I never had. I worry for him, and let me tell you, it is a pain like you will never know. He can get himself into the biggest troubles you can ever imagine, so he can very well make me pull my hair out. Even so, I choose him over the dream that have made me go on in my entire life, and I would do the same choice again if I had to."

Maddox observes the ursid with angry eyes, with the gun still pointing at the boy. "But that is the thing, isn't it?" Silver continues. "You will never know it. Because you will never even trust anyone."

For a moment Flint only observes the two of them. "The only one that I can truly trust is myself," he says after a while. Two of his crewmembers comes into the room, and inbetween them is Sarah. Maddox glances over her way and smiles an evil smile. "Oh, how good of you to join us, my dear. The boy's mother, I presume? I might as well do me a favor and make so that you will not run away again."

With that Flint turns his gun and swiftly fires at Sarah. She cries out in pain and falls down to the floor, as neither of the crewmembers are willing to keep her up on her feet. "NO!" Jim shouts in distress and is to run over to her. "MOM!"

But as the gun is directed towards him again he halts instinctively. "Don't you move, boy. I like you to remember this moment, Hawkins, as I like you to learn something before you die. I want you to learn that you can only depend on yourself. If you have not become friends with this scallywag, nothing of this would have happened to you."

Jim looks Maddox dead in the face with hate in the eyes. "You killed my mother for me to learn that? You really are mad!"

That makes Flint scrowl. "I'm not mad, boy. I'm the only one that is sane." With that he aims his gun towards Jim's heart.

"Maddox, you piece of scum," Silver hiss where he lies under the beam. He feels pain with the boy, as Jim now might as well be motherless. "Leave the boy alone!"

There is a sudden shuffle outside, and out of the blue there is a fuzzy movement thru the window. It turns out to be Jeremy with a pistol in hand. He hops thru the window and lands on the woddy floor right in front of Jim. He aims his firearm right at Maddox with abig grin on his face. Everyone in the room is staggered at the sudden apperance, and before anyone can react Jeremy fires.

"Surprise," he adds the very second later in a carefree manner and lowers his gun.

Flint stares at this new lad in front of him with a frown on his face, uncertain at first to what is going on. Then he feels it, the pain that comes from the gunshot in his chest. He drops his firearm to the floor and looks down on the ever growing red mark on his chest. Then he looks up again.

"Curse you," staggers Maddox in a gurgling voice. "Curse you, whoever you are." Then he falls to the floor, dead. Morph gurgles happily and flies to Silver to see if he is alright. The two crewmembers looks good and long on the dead body, as the relization that their captain is dead slowly sinks in.

"Hands where I can see them, you filthy pirates," Jeremy says and points his gun at them. They look up at him, then at each other, then at him again. But in the end of putting their hands in the air, as instructed, they quickly brings out their own guns.

"Two against one," says one.

"The odds seems to be at our side," says the other.

At right that moment there is a voice right outside. "Come out of the house, with your hands up," it says.

"Captain Amelia?" asks Jim in an confused voice, who only begins to understand what's happening at this very moment.

"Yeah, it's captain Amelia," Jeremy answers and sneers back at Jim with a happy smile. "With at least four ships with men. The entire house is surrounded." Then the older boy looks back at the two pirates. "Sorry, boys, but the odds seems to be on _my_ side." Just as he says it four officers from the interstellar fleet comes into the house. As they enters the pirates drops their guns and brings their hands up.

Amelia comes into the room, with an enraged expression on her face. "Damn it, Jeremy, I told you to stay put. The last thing we need is some gunslinger that runs right into danger." He have her complete attention, so that she doesn't even notice anyone else in the room.

"Sorry, ma'am, but if I wouldn't have then Jim would have been dead," offers Jeremy. "And, besides, we don't have the time to argue, as Jim's mother is lying on the floor, bleeding to death."

Amelia turns quickly to the heap on the floor with a distraught face. "Oh, dear." She points to two of the officers by the door. "You two, get a doctor, quickly."

* * *

10 days later

Sarah lies in bed, with bandages over her chest, and breathes slowly. She's asleep, and dreams happy dreams of a better time, as her son is at her side and holds her hand.

They are in Delbert's and Amelia's house. As Sarah and Jim now doesn't have anywhere to live Delbert and Amelia insists on them to live in their house, in their spare room. They have been at a hospital at first, and the doctors there have done everything they could to get Sarah back to full health. Now the only thing that can be done is to shaky and see if the gun-wound will heal. The doctors have high hopes for a full recovery, but they have said that there is always the risk for infection.

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear," Delbert says in a sad and worried tone. "To have to deal with such a man. By your description, Jim, he was a real brute."

"Yeah," Jim speaks in a low tone. He have told Amelia the whole story, from the moment where Silver have entered the Benbow Inn to when Jeremy have hoped thru the window. "He wanted to kill me and my mother to get to Silver."

"And he almost did, if it wasn't for the quick intervention of Jeremy and Amelia. I think that you have them a lot to thank for."

"Yeah, a lot. But not everything." Even though that Jim have insisted that Silver should be spared, for the act of saving him and his mother as for anything, Amelia still arrested John on the charge of being a pirate.

"Oh, I know that you and that pirate, Silver, are friends, but he must take the consequences of his actions. He's a villain."

"But a changed one. Delbert, he have not done a single act of piracy since treasure planet."

"And if he's serious about it, he will not do it ever again. You must understand, Jim, that Amelia shows great understanding when she gives him only jail time. As for what I understand, she might just have let him hang if it wasn't for your account."

"But jail for a lifetime? Isn't that a bit harsh?"

"On the opposite. A lifetime of piracy equals a lifetime in jail."

* * *

One month later

"Thank God that its over," Sarah sighs from where she sits with one of Delbert's and Amelia's daughters on her knee.

"Yes, thank God," Delbert agrees. "But, dear Sarah, are you sure that you are able to sit like that with my daughter on your knee?"

"I'm quite sure," she insists. "And besides, I can babysit for you, if you want. It is the least I can do for the hospitality you have shown."

"No, no. That's far to much work for you at this moment. Your wounds have not healed completely. I don't want you to do any heavylifting until the doctor says that it is all clear."

"But what am I to do to repay you? You let me stay here at your home without anything in return?"

Delbert moves closer and with a smile puts a han on her shoulder. "You can get better first, _then_ you can start to help in the house."

* * *

Three months later

Today is the day that the pupils of the Instestellar Acadamy comes back to continue their training to be captain, lieutenants and other crewmen of the interstellar fleet. The building intended for the students is repaired, and everything is back to normal.

Well, almost everything.

"I can't believe it," Jim says to his friend Jeremy, still sour that Silver is in jail for life. "He have not done anything wrong! If anything, he have redeemed himself when saving me and my mother."

Jeremy shrugs and looks over to his friend. "But at least you can go and visit him whenever you want and have time to. It's not like he's dead."

"Yeah, I guess so. It could have gone so much worse back there." Then Jim looks over to Jeremy and smiles. "Thanks by the way, for saving us."

"Nah, it was nothing. And besides, I have to show Amelia that I am a man of action."

Jim laughts at that. "Dude, she was really crossed at you for jumping thru the window. I don't think that you ever will hear from her again, or at least that she will give you any credit or praise for anything."

"Maybe."

* * *

Four months later

Silver sits on his bed in his own little jail cell. His mechanical arm have been confiscated, as it have built in weapons and tools in it for him to use in a potential jailbreak, so he sits there with only one hand. But it is something he have to live with, just as the fact that he have to live the rest of his days behind bars.

He sighs, as he have never imagine his life to end like this. Once, when he had the lot of a thousand worlds in treasure planet as a goal, he thought he would end his life as rich as a king of kings. That he would bathe in the most shimmering collections of gold, diamonds and emeralds.

But since the day when he decided to give it all up didn't really see how he would end up. And then Maddox Flint started to hunt for him, and all his thoughts have been wrapped up in that mess. He is at least glad that Jim have gotten out of it without a scratch. And that his mother survived the gunshot as well.

He looks around at his new home. It is not much to look at. But then again, which cell can be anything else? It is a five times five meter in diameter, with three of the four walls mad out of stone. The fourth wall is that of bars, where the cell door is located. In the cell he have only a simple bed, and nothing more. He have not even a pillow to rest his head In nor a blanket to warm his body with.

Outside of his cell is a long corridor, which is filled with other cells on both sides that are just like Silver's. In the cell on other side of this corridor, face to face with John's simple residence, is a jail-mate. It haven't escaped Silver that this fellow lawbreaker is looking at John in an odd way, but Silver is avoiding his gaze. He isn't in the right mood to talk to anyone today, but soon he is so very obliged to look his way.

"Hey, you," the jail-mate says and attracts Silver's attention with a wave of his hand. "I have heard about you. You are the cyborg who went to treasure planet, right?"

"That's right," answers Silver. "John Silver is the name. And who might you be?"

"Daniel Crow, a fellow pirate." Then the man leans forward with an interested look upon his face. "Tell me, do you want to get out of here?"

"I would very much want so," Silver says in all honesty. "But that is quite impossible, I'm afraid."

"No, not impossible. Just a bit tricky. But before we do anything of the sort, I just want to ask another question. Have you asked about the jewel of the amazons?"

Oh, Silver have heard about that, alright. "It is only the biggest jewel of the entire known galaxy. What about it?"

"I know how to get to it. But I need a crew for the job, a crew that dares to do anything to get the price." Daniels eyes glimmers like two diamonds, and shows an earnestly that Silver have never seen before. "You think you're in for it?"

John sure want to. He opend his mouth to answer, but stops himself just as he is about to say yes. Isn't he to be a lawfull man now, free from stealing and with no shady buisness? He have a hard time to decide, but in the end he determine what he is about to do and answers.

The end.

* * *

 **There, that's the end. Sorry again for the shorter chapter, I have no idea what more to include in this story than this. But at least I hope you all like it. Don't forget to review what you think. Other than that, have a nice day.**


End file.
